By Sushil Kutty
Who doesn’t dislike AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi? You can count them on the fingers. Of a thousand and one hands! Asaduddin is not easy to like. Bangladeshi writer Tasleema Nasreen wouldn’t duck if she spots Asaduddin Owaisi across the road. She will run!
There are folks in Hyderabad who hate Owaisi’s guts. Like, for example, T Raja Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party. There are Lok Sabha MPs who consider Owaisi a “good for nothing!”
But from ‘Jai Palestine!’ to ‘Jai Hind’? How surprising is that? It goes to show another facet to Owaisi, who has been chosen to be part of one of the delegations that will fan out to countries across the world to defend ‘Operation Sindoor’.
Owaisi is on Cloud Nine! There is a transformation in him, a sentiment hitherto unseen or unnoticed. People always took Owaisi as less than loyal to India. The image stuck. The ‘Jai Palestine’ smudge wouldn’t go away even as he tore up a copy of the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025, in the Lok Sabha. Asaduddin Owaisi was an ‘object’ and there remained the feeling that he didn’t want to be a subject of India.
At least he sounded so in his many utterances inside and outside Parliament. And, then, suddenly, just when needed most, Asaduddin Owaisi has been chosen to defend India’s war against arch enemy Pakistan.
Guess, Owaisi was always craving to be “accepted” and the craving always went begging. Owaisi was always seen as a loner, inside Parliament and outside Parliament, too. Members of his community took him for granted and would vote for “secular parties” but not for AIMIM even if he came down on his knees.
For some unknown and unidentified reason, Asaduddin Owaisi was always an outsider, a blot on secular India. That given the chance Asaduddin Owaisi would ditch India for Pakistan and/or Bangladesh. For the entire lot of 57 Islamic countries. At least this sentiment prevailed in Hindu circles. But reality struck and Asaduddin is on his way to become a hero!
Owaisi has been chosen as a member of the all-party delegation to visit a clutch of countries to explain India’s stand against Pakistan and why ‘Operation Sindoor’ was a necessary war for global peace and nuclear sanity. Owaisi considers the all-party delegation’s visits to various countries as an “important task” because “Pakistan wants to destabilize India.”
Owaisi didn’t forget that India is the “fifth-largest economy” and destabilisation in India will affect the whole world. He vowed to “fulfil my responsibility”, stating that a detailed meeting will set the stage for the “important task”. “I understand my responsibility well,” he said with an emphatic thrust of chin, adding that this wasn’t about “any party affiliation.”
Owaisi is part of the delegation led by Baijayanta Jay Panda and he didn’t mind that Panda was the leader of the group and he wasn’t even second-in-command. “I think this group will include Nishikant Dubey, Phangnon Konyak, Rekha Sharma, Satnam Singh Sandhu, and Ghulam Nabi Azad. The countries I think we’ll be going to are the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Denmark.”
The all-party delegation will represent India and will take the message to all countries that Pakistan wants to destabilise our country. Asaduddin Owaisi isn’t asking why the need for defending ‘Operation Sindoor’ if India’s war with Pakistan was a just war and a necessary war?
“We are representing the government of India and our country… We are going to those countries to tell how our daughters are getting widowed, our children are being orphaned, and how Pakistan wants to destabilise our country,” Owaisi said. “We are the fifth-largest economy… Never forget that 21 civilians have also been killed. Four children were killed in Pooch. Five of our jawans were killed. We will present all this to the countries… We will present the Indian government’s vision to the best of our capability.”
This will be the first time in independent India’s history that the AIMIM will be involved closely in a matter of grave importance for the country. Always and always the AIMIM had been kept away from the limelight, from important decision-making and shaping of the country’s fate. The importance given to the AIMIM will also shape the AIMIM’s future politics.
Come to think of it, what’s the fault of Asaduddin Owaisi and the AIMIM, why should they be treated as political pariahs? What is communal about catering to the interests of a single community while not denying a role for other communities? Why should so-called secular parties, which feed on bringing different parties together for political ends, be more acceptable than a political party like the AIMIM?
All things said and done, the all-party delegation selected to visit important countries later this month as an important part of ‘Operation Sindoor’ has broken a mould in as far as choosing a role for the AIMIM and Asaduddin Owaisi is concerned. The delegations will be led by a clutch of important Members of Parliament, but if anybody has been given a chance to shape national politics, it is Asaduddin Owaisi. (IPA Service)
Composition Of All-Party Delegations Under Operation Sindoor Unsatisfactory 