Hyderabad: “It is important for Muslim candidates to contest and it is okay to lose once or twice. If you don’t contest, how will you know your capacity? To people who say Muslim candidates cannot win we will then be able to show that I got so many votes if you contest,” said AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi.
Speaking at the launch of a book, Absent in Politics and Power: Political Exclusion of Indian Muslims, written by Abdur Rahman, retired IPS officer, he said, “Muslims never got seats in proportion to their population. Before 2014 the highest seats were given in 1980 and in 1984 and 2004. Those who say discrimination started in 2014 want to actually hide what happened before that. The situation was bad in 1952, 1954 and in emergency also. This you have to accept. The secular parties would have difficulty in accepting this but this is true.”
The AIMIM leader said that there are four per cent Muslim MPs in parliament at present. “Of the 26 MPs only two are those who have won from constituencies with 10 to 15 per cent Muslims. Others have won from constituencies with more than 30 per cent Muslim population. They were not given any favour by secular parties,” he lamented.
