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‘Speak about Muslims’: National Conference Lok Sabha MP Ruhullah Mehdi to INDIA bloc partners
Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said the INDIA bloc partners can speak freely about other minorities but not about Muslims, and they need to change this.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Lok Sabha MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said on Saturday that the INDIA bloc partners need to change their approach and start speaking about issues concerning Muslims.
“The INDIA bloc partners can speak freely about other minorities but not about Muslims. They need to change this. In the general election, Muslims substantially voted for this alliance and consolidated in favour of it,” said Ruhullah Mehdi.
“Even after having this support from the Muslim section of the minority, they don’t speak for them. And then, what is left for the Muslims? What institution and what hope is left for the Muslims to turn to?” questioned the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar.
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Aga Syed Ruhullah has won three legislative assembly elections from the Budgam constituency in Jammu and Kashmir. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, he defeated Peoples’ Democratic Party leader Waheed Ur Rehman Para by a margin of 1,88,416 votes.
On June 26, in his inaugural address in the Lok Sabha after Om Birla was elected as Speaker for second consecutive term, Aga Syed Ruhullah said, “I would request you that from today you are neither BJP nor Congress or Samajwadi, and you have only one party, and that is the Constitution of India.”
He expressed hope that the Speaker would uphold the Constitution and lead the House as a beacon of democracy. He also hinted that the Speaker’s legacy would be defined by how he handles both government and opposition voices in the lower house.
Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi emphasised the importance of respecting elected lawmakers and highlighted a past incident where a fellow Muslim MP was called a “terrorist.”
“You will be remembered for how you handled voices in the House that called an elected Muslim MP a terrorist, or if you allowed those voices to persist. If an elected MP is called a terrorist in this House, I wonder what is happening to other Muslims in the country,” Mehdi said before being interrupted by Om Birla.
He was referring to an incident during a special session last September, where former BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri called former BSP MP Danish Ali a “Muslim terrorist.”
In his letter to the Speaker, Danish Ali, then a BSP MP, mentioned that the BJP South Delhi MP had also called him “bhadwa (pimp),” “katwa (circumcised one),” and “Mullah aatankwadi (Muslim terrorist).”
