New Delhi: One day after a video showed the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan making socially divisive statements in a public rally a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker from Pune, Maharashtra has filed complaint against the later at Deccan Police Station. According to reports, Parimal Deshpande, has filed the plaint over Pathan's remark "15 crore (Muslims) will be tough on 100 crore (Non-Muslims) in the country."

"They tell us that we have kept our women in the front - only the lionesses have come out and you are already sweating. You can understand what would happen if all of us come together. 15 cr hain magar 100 ke upar bhaari hain, ye yaad rakh lena," the AIMIM spokesperson had said on Wednesday.

Pathan's statement erupted a huge storm on social media and several political parties including the BJP are criticising him for making such divisive remark. He was speaking on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest going on in New Delhi's Shaheen Bagh.


However, reacting to the controversy, the former Byculla MLA said that his statements misconstrued and twisted and rather blamed the BJP of segregating people. "My statement is being misconstrued and twisted. I am not apologizing. It is BJP which is trying to segregate Indians," Pathan clarified.

As the issue snowballed into a political controversy, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday is understood to gagged Pathan and has ordered him not to speak with the media till further orders.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Bala Nandgaonkar has issued an open threat to Pathan, activist lawyer Syed Ejaz Abbas ‘Naqvi' has written to the police to lodge a first information report against him.

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Hitting out at Pathan, the BJP's Karnataka unit said such threats do not work in new India. "What more Azadi do they want? Aren't they enjoying every kind of Azadi since 1947? Waris Pathan and other leaders of AIMIM should come out of their Aurangzeb's World. These threats don't work in #NewIndia," it tweeted.

BJP on Friday alleged that AIMIM leader Waris Pathan's controversial remarks shows the conspiracy going on in the name of anti-CAA protest and questioned the "silence of liberals" opposing the law. Addressing a press conference at the BJP office here, party spokesperson Sambit Patra said Pathan's remarks shows the conspiracy going on in the name of protest against the CAA.

"I want to ask all the so-called liberals, who have been opposing CAA, why are they silent on his remarks," Patra asked. It also vindicates that ladies who are sitting in Shaheen Bagh are just being used as a shield to further the cause of hatred, Patra added.

(With additional inputs from agencies)