‘I am No 1 citizen of India’: AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi on Yogi Adityanath’s Nizam jab

Owaisi was responding to Adityanath’s recent remarks at a rally in poll-bound Telangana that Owaisi would have to “run away” from Hyderabad, just like the Nizam, if the BJP came to power in the state.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his “Nizam” barb at him, saying Indian Muslims had rejected Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory and he is a citizen of this country “by choice”.

President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi addressed the media in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, December 5, 2018. Elections in Telangana will be held on December 7. (AP)

The Hyderabad MP was responding to Adityanath’s recent remarks at a rally in poll-bound Telangana that Owaisi would have to “run away” from Hyderabad, just like the Nizam, if the BJP came to power in the state.

“I am number one citizen of India, an equal citizen and I am not a tenant,” Owaisi told reporters at Hyderabad Press Club.

Read: Modi, KCR, Owaisi are one: Rahul Gandhi’s attack ahead of Telangana rallies

Unlike Yogi, he said, he is an Indian “by choice”.

“We (Indian Muslims) rejected Jinnah’s theory. We always accept that India is our homeland. You cannot treat us as second-class citizens. The BJP’s ideology is to treat Muslims not as equal citizens but as unequal citizens,” the AIMIM chief said.

Addressing a poll rally in Hyderabad, he had also said Adityanath was speaking the language of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP and that he was ignorant about history.