top of page

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.

The Musk Mutiny

Elon Musk has broken up with President Trump to form a political party of his own. But can Silicon Valley populism fix Washington’s dysfunction or worsen it?

The world’s richest man has declared political independence. Elon Musk, no stranger to provocation or reinvention, announced the formation of the ‘America Party’ after ending his brief but high-profile association with the Trump administration. The fallout came swiftly after President Donald Trump signed into law a sweeping spending and tax bill that Musk had condemned as “insane and destructive.”


For months, their political courtship had held Washington in thrall. Musk, appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - a typically irreverent acronym in the Muskian mould - was tasked with slashing federal bureaucracy and pushing tech-forward reforms. But the White House’s July 4 bill, a firework display of largesse, marked the end. Musk launched an online poll on Independence Day asking whether he should start a new political party. By the next morning, with two-thirds of respondents saying yes, he declared the America Party born.


History is strewn with wealthy men who tried to upend American politics. H. Ross Perot’s 1992 Reform Party bid garnered 19 percent of the vote, proving that outsider candidates could resonate with an electorate jaded by partisanship. Theodore Roosevelt, after his falling out with the Republican machine in 1912, founded the Progressive ‘Bull Moose’ Party, splitting the conservative vote and handing the White House to Woodrow Wilson. Like Roosevelt, Musk now seems set on blitzing the political centre from both flanks.


But unlike Roosevelt or Perot, Musk commands a cult-like following online and sits atop a vast corporate empire spanning electric vehicles, spaceflight, and artificial intelligence. Where past third-party efforts faltered for want of media oxygen and money, Musk suffers no such disadvantage. He is the message, the megaphone and the moneybag all in one.


Musk’s critique echoes those of disillusioned centrists and radical populists alike that the Democrats and Republicans, despite their trench warfare over cultural issues, often collude in matters of spending, war and lobbying. The uniparty, in Musk’s telling, is as entrenched as the Spartan phalanx - invincible until Epaminondas of Thebes shattered it at Leuctra in 371 BC by deploying an unorthodox wedge formation. Musk promises to do the same with a concentrated assault on America’s political duopoly.


His analogy may flatter his ambitions. Yet the underlying strategy of targeting key Senate and House races with high-tech campaigns and precision funding is not without precedent. The Tea Party movement and Bernie Sanders’ insurgency both showed how disciplined, donor-powered swarms could unsettle incumbents. Musk, with his blend of fiscal conservatism, techno-optimism and libertarian instinct, hopes to do both parties equal harm. He has already outlined a centrist plank of reducing national debt, modernising the military and investing in artificial intelligence.


Still, voters may wonder whether the America Party is more flash than foundation. A party born from a Twitter poll risks resembling a vanity project more than a serious vehicle for reform. American history is rife with such shooting stars. Andrew Yang’s Forward Party promised to transcend tribalism but failed to attract meaningful traction. Kanye West’s brief presidential flirtation in 2020 was even less substantive. If Musk wants to be more than a billionaire gadfly, he will need institutional muscle and ballot access in 50 states.


The electoral college and single-member districts are designed to favour two parties. Even if Musk's party gains traction, it may end up kingmaking rather than governing, as Perot and Roosevelt once did. Or worse, it could splinter the vote enough to hand power to whichever side Musk disdains more.


For now, the America Party remains a concept more than a coalition. But its emergence underscores the volatility of the current moment. In an age where institutions are mistrusted and platforms are digital, a wealthy and wired man like Elon Musk can redraw the map faster than the old gatekeepers can respond.

Comments

bottom of page