Asaduddin Owaisi questions Congress silence on Rs 1,500 crore Jet bailout

Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi wanted to know why Rs 1,500 crore of public money was being given to bailout a loss-making airline like Jet Airways by the BJP-led government and why the Congress was silent on the matter.

Mr Owaisi, addressing a public meeting, said, “Naresh Goyal is not an Indian citizen. Why is the government extending Indian money to him? Had this money been given to 10,000 factories in the ‘Make in India’ programme, thousands of people would have benefited... This is not a Delhi Sultanate that the Modi government is running. Why is the Congress quiet on this?”

The evening meetings that Mr Owaisi holds in Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency usually see packed crowds.

Addressing a meeting with the TRS in the Rajendranagar Assembly segment, Mr Owaisi said national parties were harmful for Dalits, minorities and underprivileged sections of society. “Only regional parties care for their interests,” Mr Owaisi said, speaking in support of TRS Chevella candidate Dr G. Ranjit.

He said the people of Telangana state should not vote in favour of national parties. The TRS government established more than 250 residential schools where more than 50,000 students are being provided education free of cost, he said.

Mr Owaisi said, “If we send all TRS and MIM candidates to Parliament, it will help form a government at the Centre which is non-BJP and non-Congress. Like-minded parties are attempting to prevent the BJP from forming the next government.”

He said, “Our intention is that our next Prime Minister would be a person who maintains and upholds the unity and secularism of India. An opportunity should be given to a person who has the guts to unite all sections of society.”

Mr Owaisi said leaders were leaving the Congress because they had realised that the future of the party was bleak. He assured that the MIM would support the TRS in all 16 constituencies where it was contesting.