Owaisi demands ban on movie ‘glorifying’ Godse

Hyderabad: Demanding a ban on the movie ‘Gandhi Godse: Ek Yudh’, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi contended that if the BBC’s documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role as Gujarat Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002 was blocked on social media, how was the government supporting a movie which “glorifies a terrorist.”

Addressing a public meeting near Charminar late Sunday night, Owaisi, the Hyderabad MP, asked the Prime Minister to take a clear-cut stand, as there could not be double standards when it came to the freedom of expression.

“After having banned the BBC interview critical of Modi, how is it that a movie that glorifies the ‘biggest terrorist’ has been cleared for a Republic Day release. Who is Godse and why do you love him? I dare you to ban it,” he said.

The MIM chief also read out a few sentences from Godse's book ‘Why I assassinated Gandhi’ and tried to explain the relationship between the RSS and Godse. “There was love between Godse and Savarkar and there are BJP MPs who eulogise Godse, who never regretted killing Mahatma Gandhi,” he said.

Taking a dig at Modi, he asked, “Were you not the Chief Minister during Gujarat riots in 2002? Did some aliens appear and leave the spaceship after the mayhem?”

Owaisi wondered why ‘secular’ parties were denying important positions to Muslim leaders of their own parties.

“They want to vote but do not wish to give due importance to their own leaders. I dare these so-called secular parties to take on BJP on ideological grounds,” he said.

On the appointment of Supreme Court judges Owaisi questioned the ‘interference of the Centre’ citing that the judiciary should be allowed to function independently.

He challenged Union home minister Amit Shah’s take on Tipu Sultan and felt that when the panel on constitution had recognised his sacrifices, who was Shah to question. “He was a patriot and died fighting the British. Tipu did not surrender nor wrote letters,” he emphasised while referring to Savarkar’s mercy petition.

On the Jiyaguda murder case on Sunday, he urged the city police commissioner to “arrest whoever displays weapons under non-bailable cases. Form a special wing to keep track of such cases.”