I am not against Hindus, but the ideology of Hindu Nation: Owaisi

Lucknow: Overlooking the authorities' order of cancelling the Lucknow Literary Festival, the organiser, keeping his promise, on Saturday aired the live video of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Facebook.

It is worth mentioning that Owaisi was scheduled to address at the literary festival on Saturday, but could not do se due to a scuffle between ABVP and Samajwadi Party students' wing members at the Sheroes Hangout café here. The brawl erupted as JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar had arrived at the event without any prior permission from the authorities.

Speaking live on social media platform, Owaisi said, "I am not against Hindus, but against those who believe in the ideology of making India a 'Hindu Nation' (in an apparent dig at the RSS)."

"Diversity is the identity of India and I will always stand against those who want to spoil this," he added.

He took a dig at the current BJP and the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) governments for not letting him speak.

Also Read: Lucknow Literary Festival turns political; called off within hour

"Not only in Yogi Adityanath's rule, I was stopped from coming here by the previous SP government as well. But I have always said that if I do something wrong, file a case against me and put me behind bars. But not letting me speak is an attempt to abuse my constitutional rights," Owaisi further said.

Speaking over the Taj Mahal issue, he said, "The historic monument is being dragged into the controversy to divert attention from the real issues. If Taj Mahal is a blot on India's culture, then Red Fort is also the same. And what would you say about the soft-spoken culture of Lucknow?"

He slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led UP government saying that the Taj Mahal controversy was cooked to divert focus from the real issues like children dying in Gorakhpur hospital, poor education structure in the state and rising inflation.

Also Read: No Literary Festival for Lucknow; authorities pack bags

It may be recalled that the organiser of fifth edition of Lucknow Literary Festival, Shamim A Aarzoo, had claimed on Friday to publish a live video of Owaisi on Facebook no matter what the authorities say.