Asaduddin Owaisi urged the Centre to bring a law to punish anyone calling an Indian Muslim "a Pakistani"
Asaduddin Owaisi, who leads the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen or AIMIM has urged the government to bring a law to punish any person who calls an Indian Muslim "a Pakistani" with a three-year jail term.
Putting his demand to the government in the House, Mr Owaisi said, "Bring a law that if any Muslim is called Pakistani, the person making such remarks will face a three-year jail term." He went on to say he was quite certain that his demand will not be heard, and that the BJP-led government will not bring such a bill.
Mr Owaisi said Muslims living in India had rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory.
Mr Owaisi, who was taking part in the debate in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President's Address, also claimed that the triple talaq bill was "anti-women."
Mr Owaisi had recently criticised the government on the bill to ban instant triple talaq and claimed that the bill introduced in parliament is not the solution to social problems. Mr Owaisi had also claimed that the triple talaq bill was a "ploy to send Muslim men to jail." Putting his argument forth, he had said that "Dowry deaths and other crimes against women did not stop even when specific laws were made against these practices in the past."
Mr Owaisi has himself, faced the "go to Pakistan" remark in the past. In March 2016, The Shiv Sena slammed Asaduddin Owaisi, asking him to "go to Pakistan" for refusing to chant 'Bharat mata ki jai'. Shiv Sena minister Ramdas Kadam had said, "Owaisi doesn't deserve to stay in India because he does not respect the country that has given him so much. He should go to Pakistan or we will drive him out of this country."
Mr Owaisi had argued that "I will never say 'Bharat mata ki jai' because the Indian constitution has not made this slogan mandatory. I will not chant the slogan even if they put a knife to my neck."
(With inputs from IANS)