August 5 will be a date forever etched in the memory of modern India as this date, till the dawn of time will signify the change that was brought into the country. The wheel of injustice was finally broken and India turned a new chapter in its long, glorious and illustrious history.
August 5 also heralds a new chapter in Asaduddin Owaisi’s political career. Believe it or not but by the grace of Shree Ram, Owaisi has been given the god-send opportunity to take Congress to the cleaners.
The grand-old party of Congress had been on the fence about the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan for the large part of the last one month.
For Congress it was a classic Catch-22 situation over the Muslim and Hindu votes as supporting the Ram Mandir issue would have meant playing right into the hands of BJP and losing the somewhat loyal Muslim vote bank.
But not entering the Ayodhya discourse at all would have meant lodging the final nail in the coffin for Congress’ chances of making any comeback in the Hindi heartland.
However, the shrewd politician in Owaisi has sniffed the opportunity and has taken a vocal stand on criticizing Congress to attract the Muslim voters in its corner after Priyanka Vadra came in support of the Mandir yesterday. Gandhi’s support of Ram Mandir came as a shock to many as Congress was the same party that had in 2007 filed an affidavit in Supreme Court, denying the existence of Bhagwan Ram.
The Hyderabad MP slammed Congress leader Priyanka Vadra for supporting the Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and saying that the event would celebrate national unity.
“Glad that they are not pretending anymore. It’s okay if they want to embrace this extremist ideology of Hindutva but why all this hollow talk about brotherhood? Don’t be shy, please be proud of your party’s contributions to the movement that demolished our Babri Masjid” tweeted Asaduddin Owaisi.
Glad that they are not pretending anymore. It's okay if they want to embrace this extremist ideology of Hindutva but why all this hollow talk about brotherhood?
Don't be shy, please be proud of your party's contributions to the movement that demolished our Babri Masjid https://t.co/wT2H9GJ7MD
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) August 4, 2020
Earlier, the older Gandhi sibling out of the blue came out and supported the Bhoomi Pujan event and hoped that the August 5 event will spread the ethos Lord Ram stood for.
“Simplicity, courage, restraint, sacrifice, commitment, are the essence of the name Ram. Ram is with everyone, Ram is within everyone. With the message and grace of Lord Ram and Mother Sita, may the Bhoomi poojan ceremony of the temple of Ramlalla became an occasion for national unity, fraternity and cultural congregation,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, concluding the statement with a ‘Jai Siya Ram’.
Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP from Anandpur Sahib, Manish Tewari, had also extended greetings to the fellow citizens ahead of the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan and tweeted a ‘secularised’ version of ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ to show his support.
With Congress somewhat crossing that dreaded line of supporting the Ram Mandir issue, the core Muslim votebank is expected to slip away and Owaisi wants a taste of that vote bank.
Therefore he has started with the attack on Priyanka Gandhi and is slowly going to make his move to woo the traditional congress voting Muslim voter.
Looking at the endgame, you can understand Owaisi’s offense much better. With the election season heating up in Bihar where AIMIM has announced it will contest on 32 seats, the Muslim votebank assumes paramount importance. The party will put up candidates across 22 districts of the state and the majority of the seats are Muslim-dominated.
In the Kishanganj bypoll, Owaisi had given the trailer that he could effectively polarise the Muslim votes and render Congress bankrupt.
In the Kishanganj bypoll, Congress had a taste of its own medicine as AIMIM played the same dirty appeasement politics like Congress and snatched its hold on the seat.
The seat was considered a Congress bastion but AIMIM breached it handsomely. Saeeda Bano, who was fielded as Congress’ candidate came third on the seat and lost her deposit.
The Ram Mandir issue and cornering of Congress by Owaisi is going to bring the Muslim votes to AIMIM. Owaisi might be vilifying the Hindus and the judgement of Supreme Court in the public but the issue has given him the gasoline to bulldoze the Congress party.