AIMIM chief Owaisi draws triple talaq analogy to mock Nitish

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday drew the analogy of the now outlawed practice of triple talaq to berate Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's dumping of BJP last year and break up with RJD half-a-decade ago.

The Hyderabad MP addressed a public meeting in Kishanganj district's Raipur panchayat on the final day of his tour of Bihar's densely populated, flood-prone Seemanchal region. "Nitish Kumar said talaq! talaq! talaq! to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and did nikaah (marriage) with Tejashwi Yadav (Deputy CM and RJD leader)," said Owaisi. "Long ago, Nitish had vowed not to go with BJP again saying 'mitti mein mil jaaenge' but 'unko mitti pasand nahin aayi' (he did not stick to his words).

He ended up saying talaq! talaq! talaq! to Tejashwi Yadav," said the firebrand leader, in his trademark style. The AIMIM chief, whose party had made a splash in 2020 assembly polls, winning five seats, all in the Seemanchal region, lambasted the Centre for "defaming" residents of the Muslim-dominated area by alleging that it was infested with 'ghuspaithiye' (infiltrators).

He also came down heavily on the state government for neglecting the region's crying need for protection against annual floods that forced its residents to spend "months living on the roadside, as if they were not humans but cattle", and warned of an agitation by his party, which was down in the dumps but yearning for a revival.

"If the government continues to neglect the needs of the people of Seemanchal, AIMIM will block traffic on the national highway here. Nitish and Tejashwi shall be responsible for the problems arising thereof," he asserted.

A barrister by qualification, Owaisi, who bristles at the allegation by non-NDA parties that AIMIM was 'BJP's B Team', said, "The Centre must also pay heed to our resolve to fight for Seemanchal. If we go ahead with chakka jam, the chicken's neck corridor will be affected."

The allusion was to the stretch of land in Siliguri area of West Bengal, less than 100 km from Kishanganj, that connects Northeast with the rest of the country. "Ever since I have been in Bihar, journalists have been seeking my views on Nitish Kumar's Prime Ministerial prospects. I want to tell both Nitish and Narendra Modi that the route to power in Delhi will pass through Seemanchal," added the Hyderabad MP.