Edited Video Shown, Owaisi Clarifies Viral Kanpur Speech. BJP Compares Him To Jinnah

Owaisi said the video had taken just one minute of a 45-minute speech given by him to convey the wrong impression that he was trying to spread violence.

New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said that a clipped video footage of his speech was being circulated on social media to trigger controversy and distract attention from the ‘Haridwar genocial meet’.

Owaisi said the video had taken just one minute of a 45-minute speech given by him to convey the wrong impression that he was trying to spread violence.

“In order to distract from #HaridwarGenocidalMeet, a clipped 1 min video is being circulated from 45 min speech I gave in Kanpur. I’ll set the record straight: 1. I did not incite violence or give threats. I talked about POLICE ATROCITIES Here’s the full video in TWO PARTS [Cont],” he tweeted sharing the video of his speech made in Kanpur.

In the video that has gone viral on social media, the Hyderabad MP said: “At Kanpur Dehat Rasoolabad Police Station, an 80-year-old elderly person called Mohd Rafiq had his beard pulled and was urinated upon. The person who did this was an SI, Gajendra Pal Singh. Is this your izzat (decency)? You treat an 80-year-old like this? If this is true, it’s not a shame but we feel pained that you saw a beard and thought you would pull it. Why do you hate our beards? You do this to an 80-year-old?”

He also hit out at the police personnel warning them of consequences once Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi go out of power.

“When Yogi will return to his mutt, when PM Modi will go to the hills, who will save you?” the AIMIM chief can be heard saying in the video.

“As you can see in the above video & the one here, I was talking about POLICE ATROCITIES in Kanpur & addressing such cops who think they have immunity to violate people’s liberties because of Modi-Yogi…I said do not confuse our silence for acquiescence,” Owaisi wrote on the micro-blogging platform.

“The context to my speech is amply clear. I was talking about cops who torture 80-year old men.I was talking about cops who watch silently as mobs thrash a rickshaw driver in front of his daughter. Cops who rained lathi blows on a man as held his child in his arms,” he said in a series of tweets.

The event in Haridwar that Owaisi was referring to in his speech was attended by several Hindu religious leaders, who allegedly called upon the community to take up arms against Muslims as they gave a clarion call for a ‘Hindu nation’, IANS reported.

The religious assembly in Haridwar was organised by controversial Hindutva figure Yati Narsinghanand, who is known to make communally-charged comments.

BJP Compares AIMIM Chief To Jinnah

Even though he clarified that the context of his remarks was deliberately edited out to misrepresent it, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has compared Owaisi to Muhammad Ali Jinnah. 

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi compared him to Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and said AIMIM leaders are used to making such mischievous remarks.

"...soul of Jinnah resides in Owaisi," Trivedi said, adding that the Hyderabad MP's remarks are similar to that of Jinnah made in 1946, a year before partition while talking about direct action.