From Nehru to Modi, Muslims reduced to just vote bank, showboys, says Owaisi
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi accused both the BJP and Congress of failing to ensure meaningful political representation for Muslims, alleging that successive governments have treated the community largely as a vote bank rather than an equal political stakeholder. Speaking at the India Today Conclave South in Kochi, he said parties claiming to be secular had also failed to show the “intellectual honesty” needed to politically empower minorities. Owaisi said Muslims constitute around 18 crore of India’s population but account for only 4 per cent of elected members in Parliament. He questioned why other communities had been able to build political leadership and agency while Muslims remained largely confined to the role of voters. “Where is my political voice? Where is my political agency?” he asked, arguing that political marginalisation had persisted from the era of Jawaharlal Nehru to the present government. Targeting both sides of the political spectrum, Owaisi said the BJP did not give Muslims enough electoral representation, while parties that call themselves secular had reduced the community to “voters and showboys”. He said Muslims had often voted for the “lesser of two evils” because there was no viable alternative, and argued that political justice was essential for achieving social and economic justice.