CM Targeting Muslim Economy: Owaisi

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday accused Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy of targeting the economy of the Muslim community living in the Old City.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting of Muslim Mutehada Majlis-e-Amal or Muslim Joint Action Committee, a representative body of religious organisations, at Darulsalaam, Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that by not allowing normalcy to return to the Old City, the Chief Minister is deliberately targeting the Muslim economy.

He slammed the City Police for imposing an undeclared curfew in several areas of the Old City, especially around Charminar. He asked City Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma to explain why he was not allowing Muslims near the Charminar while permission was being accorded to Hindus to perform poojas at the temple abutting the Charminar.

The MIM president said that traders in Pathergatti, Mir Alam, Shalibanda and surrounding areas incurred losses to the tune of several crores due to "the over-activism" of the City Police. He said that small traders, rickshaw pullers, auto-drivers, vendors and daily wage earners were the worst hit.

He also said that police officials gave the family members of Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha a rousing welcome when they visited the Charminar to perform a pooja at the Bhagyalakshmi Temple.

Preventing the entry of one particular community into a route or a public place was against democracy, he said.

Owaisi said that Kiran Kumar Reddy was proving that he was the rightful successor of former Prime Minsiter P V Narasimha Rao who, he said, had "crossed all limits" to promote communalism.

He added that Kiran Kumar Reddy would be taught a fitting lesson by people in the next elections. He said that the Congress had come to power only due to the support of the MJAC in the 2004 and 2009 elections.

"But it will be wiped out from the state in the next elections to be held in 2014 or earlier," he said.

When asked why the MIM has not yet given the the governor a letter of withdrawal of support to the government, the MIM president said that giving a letter was "not essential". He added that the MIM had supported the Congress government during the last No Confidence Motion.

Owaisi also questioned the silence of secular parties on the controversy surrounding the temple abutting Charminar. (INN)