Owaisi slams PM’s I-Day speech

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Independence Day speech, saying the BJP government in Gujarat approved the release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists and murderers of her family.

The Hyderabad MP in a post on ‘X’ said: “In today’s speech @narendramodi expressed concern over women’s safety. His own govt approved the release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists & murderers of her family”.

Owaisi said she (Bilkis Bano) spent 15 years fighting for justice and Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat for most of the time then.

The AIMIM president alleged that Modi campaigned for a candidate in Karnataka who is accused of the most heinous crimes against thousands of women. The BJP’s high command



reportedly knew of these crimes much before they were made public, he claimed.

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 78th Independence Day, Modi expressed profound concern over incidents of rape and violence against women.

The AIMIM chief further alleged “if the Prime Minister himself doesn’t take women’s safety seriously, then how can we expect social change? When the ruling party releases convicted rapists, and they’re garlanded on their release, what’s the message going to criminals?”.

The Supreme Court in January this year quashed the remission for 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and murdering seven of her family members during the 2002 riots and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks.