New Delhi: AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has accused Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju of spreading propaganda against Muslims after remarks related to minority status triggered political controversy.
The dispute began after Rijiju reportedly compared the Muslim population in India with the Parsi community. He stated that Muslims in India were numerous enough to form the world’s sixth-largest country, while the Parsi population stood at around 53,000.
Reacting on social media platform X, Owaisi criticised the minister and questioned his understanding of constitutional rights and demographic realities. Referring to Article 30 of the Constitution, Owaisi said every non Hindu group qualified as a minority in India because Hindus formed the majority population.
Owaisi wrote that the minister was attempting to deny Muslims their fundamental rights through propaganda. He also pointed to linguistic minorities and argued population size alone did not determine minority status.
The AIMIM leader raised wider concerns regarding voter verification drives and citizenship-linked exercises. During a press conference in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar earlier this month, he alleged that Muslims were facing targeting through a “planned agenda”.
Owaisi linked the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls with the National Register of Citizens and National Population Register processes. He claimed the exercise involved mapping procedures and alleged that 97 per cent of 2.7 million verified names belonged to Muslims.
He stated that the issue affected all communities and not Muslims alone. Owaisi also said the matter would reach the courts and urged people to closely follow developments surrounding voter verification and citizenship-related procedures.
