Congress Slams Owaisis For Remarks Against Its Top Leaders

The Congress today strongly condemned the recent remarks made by MIM leaders Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi against party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Revanth Reddy.

TPCC Minorities Department Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail accused the Owaisi brothers of trying to deflect attention from their own failures in the lead-up to the upcoming Assembly elections.

Abdullah Sohail said that the Owaisi brothers tended to become more vocal during election season. He criticized the party for "neglecting developmental issues in the Old City", and alleged that they had returned to seek votes with a record of "zero development and nil performance".

"What happened to the Old City Metro Rail project that the BRS and the MIM had hyped up in the last session of the Telangana Assembly? Even the foundation stone hasn't been laid. To mislead the people, IT minister K T Tama Rao laid the foundation stone for the construction of an IT tower in Malakpet. The people of the Old City have seen many such foundation stones. In fact, the BRS government has spent more money on foundation stone laying ceremonies than on actually developing the Old City. MIM leaders are making irresponsible statements against Congress leaders just to avoid criticism from the people and a backlash in the next elections," he said.

Abdullah Sohail said that neither Asaduddin Owaisi nor Akbaruddin Owaisi had any right to criticize Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi or Revanth Reddy. He accused the MIM of being a political party that did not work for the welfare of the people, but instead acted as a mercenary and an agent of the Sangh Parivar by fielding candidates to split Muslim votes and help the BJP win elections. He also accused the MIM of blackmailing major parties and candidates by threatening to field candidates and split votes. Sohail said that for the Owaisi brothers, elections were an opportunity to make money, not a time to reflect on their performance and assess their failures. He added that the MIM did not work with a sense of accountability to the people.

Strongly defending Revanth Reddy, Abdullah Sohail said that while the Owaisi brothers had been accusing him of being a BJP agent, in reality the MIM was the party that had been acting as an agent of the BJP and the RSS. Despite beginning his political career in the ABVP, Revanth Reddy had never supported the RSS ideology, and had quit that organization for that reason, Sohail claimed. Sohail said that the MIM leaders, on the other hand, were helping the BJP to strengthen its ideology of hatred and communal violence.

Abdullah Sohail said that the foul-mouthed Owaisi brothers would face the toughest elections of their careers in November. He said that MIM leaders could keep spitting venom against the Congress, but the Congress would ensure that it brought about positive change in Telangana, especially in the Old City of Hyderabad.