Tahir Bhat Banhali CNI
New Delhi, July 8: AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has hit back strongly at Union Minister Kiren Rijiju over his recent post claiming that minorities in India enjoy more benefits and protection than the majority community. Owaisi said Rijiju is ignoring the real struggles of Indian Muslims and acting more like a ruler than a minister of a democratic country.
Rijiju had posted on X: “India is the only country where the minorities get more benefits and protections than the majority community.” Responding to this, Owaisi accused him of making misleading claims and asked him to stick to his constitutional duties.
“You are not a king. You are a minister of the Indian Republic. Minority rights are guaranteed by the Constitution — they are not some kind of charity,” Owaisi said in a detailed post on X. He questioned what kind of “benefits” Rijiju was referring to when Indian Muslims face daily abuse and hate.
“Is it a benefit to be called Pakistani, Bangladeshi, jihadi, or Rohingya every day? Is it protection to be lynched in the name of religion? Or to be pushed into Bangladesh?” Owaisi asked.
He also raised the issue of illegal demolitions targeting Muslim properties. “Is it a privilege to see our homes, mosques, and shrines being bulldozed? To be made invisible in society, politics, and the economy?” he said.
Owaisi further alleged that India’s minorities, especially Muslims, are no longer treated even as second-class citizens. “We are hostages in our own country,” he said.
The Hyderabad MP criticized the government for cutting important scholarships meant for Muslim students. He pointed out that the Maulana Azad National Fellowship was stopped, and the pre-matric, post-matric, and merit-cum-means scholarships were slashed. “All these schemes were targeted just because they benefited Muslims,” he said.
He also referred to government data showing that the number of Muslim students in higher education has dropped, while their participation in the informal economy has increased. “Your own data shows Muslims are among the worst hit by the current economic policies,” Owaisi added.
He made it clear that Muslims are not asking for special treatment or to be compared with minorities in other countries. “We are only asking for equal rights, nothing more, nothing less,” Owaisi concluded.