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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Educated Muslims being hounded: Owaisi

Mumbai: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has flayed what he termed as a ‘media trial’ in the alleged TCS Nashik conversion case and claimed that educated Muslims youth are being deliberately targeted as part of planned ‘hate campaign’, here on Saturday. Reiterating full faith in the judicial process, Owaisi said that justice cannot be handed out through media narratives or television debates and the law must be allowed to take its own course. “We are seeing a very dangerous trend… Now,...

Educated Muslims being hounded: Owaisi

Mumbai: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has flayed what he termed as a ‘media trial’ in the alleged TCS Nashik conversion case and claimed that educated Muslims youth are being deliberately targeted as part of planned ‘hate campaign’, here on Saturday. Reiterating full faith in the judicial process, Owaisi said that justice cannot be handed out through media narratives or television debates and the law must be allowed to take its own course. “We are seeing a very dangerous trend… Now, educated Muslims are being picked out for orchestrated allegations and media campaigns. This doesn’t augur well for society and justice itself with the media playing the role of the judge and jury,” said Owaisi sharply. Flanked by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen state President Imtiaz Jaleel, Owaisi also emphatically said that it was wrong to link his party with the TCS case prime accused Nida Khan, “who will be ultimately proven innocent in the courts”. He expressed concerns over the slur campaign driven by malice and political motives against his party as well as Nida Khan in some sections of the media even before the investigations were completed or a judicial scrutiny. “Merely because some allegations have been hurled at a young woman professional, attempts are being made to paint her ‘guilty’ through media trials, even before judicial scrutiny. But, we have complete faith in the judiciary and are confident that the court will eventually exonerate her,” asserted Owaisi. Public Discourse Raising questions on the probe and accompanying public discourse with stress on the alleged recovery of certain ‘evidence’ from Nida Khan’s home, he sharply questioned: “Since when have a burqa, a niqab or religious literature become objectionable… Is wearing a hijab now regarded as evidence of a crime?” He said that these details along with baseless allegations are sensationalism in the media to create further prejudice against the minority community and reflected a deep-rooted hostility aimed at harassing educated Muslim men and women. Owaisi pointed out that a complaint in the TCS Nashik case was filed by a leader linked with the ruling party, and as per the software giant’s statement, Nida Khan was not with its HR Department and transferred even before the controversy erupted, contradicting several media reports. Of the nine cases lodged in the matter till date, in one case, she was accused of hurting religious sentiments, but nobody can comment on it before the court pronounces its verdict, he pointed out. Court Fight Dismissing attempts to drag and link the AIMIM into the row, he referred to a party Municipal Corporator Matin Patel who was booked merely on the basis of certain allegations and vowed to contest the matter in the court. Here Owaisi cited multiple examples of educated Muslims being scrutinised – including in Delhi when some educated youths were arrested for possessing a book by the legendary Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib and they were later released. There was another one from Allahabad where some Muslim boys were targeted for writing an Urdu ‘sher’ (couplet) prompting judicial intervention, and predicted that even in the Nashik TCS case, the truth will ultimately prevail as no criminal charges against Nida Khan may stand. AIMIM to set up voter help-desks AIMIM President and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi said his party is developing a digital application containing electoral records of all 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra for 2002-2024, to help voters in the SIR process. For this, the AIMIM will set up help desk centers in its strongholds to facilitate the process and ensure proper utilisation of voter data. Alleging discrepancies in electoral records, he said such errors create huge problems for the voters, especially the poor or illiterates. Owaisi mentioned how of the nearly 27 lakh names placed in the adjudication list in West Bengal, “90 pc were poor Muslims.” These centers would be open for all Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Dalits, Adivasis and the general public needing assistance with the electoral records.

India Needs a Credit Repair Framework—Not Permanent Financial Punishment

India’s financial system has made remarkable progress in expanding credit access. Yet, there is a quiet crisis unfolding beneath the surface—millions of otherwise responsible borrowers remain locked out of formal credit due to temporary financial distress experienced during extraordinary times.


The COVID-19 pandemic, followed by economic disruptions, medical emergencies, and employment instability, pushed many individuals into short-term loan defaults. These were not cases of wilful negligence, but of systemic shock. However, our credit reporting and scoring mechanisms continue to treat such defaults as permanent red flags, often without scope for contextual review or rehabilitation.


Recently, I submitted a proposal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministry of Finance urging the introduction of a structured Credit Repair and Rehabilitation Framework—one that balances credit discipline with economic realism and human fairness.


Why Credit Repair Matters Now

India is aiming to become a $5 trillion economy, driven by consumption, entrepreneurship, and MSME growth. Yet, credit exclusion acts as a silent brake on this ambition. When salaried professionals, small entrepreneurs, and self-employed workers are denied access to loans years after a one-time crisis default, we unintentionally push them toward informal lending, higher interest rates, or economic stagnation.


A rigid “once-defaulted, always-risky” approach may protect balance sheets in the short term, but it undermines long-term credit expansion and trust in the formal system.


Learning from Global Practices

Globally, regulators are rethinking this approach. For instance, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has recently introduced a regulated credit repair mechanism allowing borrowers with limited, time-bound overdue records from crisis periods to restore creditworthiness. Importantly, this does not weaken credit discipline—it strengthens it by distinguishing temporary hardship from habitual default.


India, with its robust digital banking and credit infrastructure, is well-positioned to design an even more nuanced and accountable framework.


What a Balanced Framework Could Look Like


A well-regulated credit rehabilitation policy could include:

• Eligibility limited to crisis-period defaults, officially notified by regulators

• Caps on overdue amount and frequency

• Mandatory cooling-off periods and improved repayment behaviour

• Bank-led review and approval mechanisms

• Clear RBI guidelines for credit bureaus on data correction and updating


Such a framework would be conditional, transparent, and auditable, ensuring no dilution of systemic risk controls.


Economic Inclusion Is Economic Strength

Credit systems are not merely risk filters—they are economic enablers. A borrower who recovers, repays consistently, and rebuilds financial discipline should not remain excluded indefinitely due to a past crisis.


True financial inclusion is not just about opening accounts or issuing loans—it is about allowing recovery, rebuilding trust, and restoring dignity within the system.


The Way Forward

This is an opportune moment for RBI and the Finance Ministry to initiate a structured consultation with banks, NBFCs, credit bureaus, economists, and consumer representatives to explore a calibrated credit repair framework tailored for India.


Second chances, when governed responsibly, do not weaken economies—they strengthen them.


As India charts its next phase of growth, our credit policies must evolve from being purely punitive to progressively rehabilitative, without compromising prudence.

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