Congress Responsible For Partition, Says Asaduddin Owaisi Amid Jinnah Row

New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday said the Partition did not happen due to Muslims but because of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, as he challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party leaders who “don’t read” to prove otherwise.

Owaisi also held the Congress responsible for the Partition which divided the country into two independent dominions –  India and Pakistan –  in 1947.

“I challenge people of RSS, BJP & SP who don’t read. Partition didn’t happen due to Muslims but due to Jinnah. At that time, only those Muslims could vote who were influential, nawabs or degree holders. Congress & leaders of that time were responsible for partition,” news agency ANI quoted Owaisi as saying while addressing an event in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party’s ally in Uttar Pradesh, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party’s chief had stoked a controversy after he said there would have been “no partition” had Mohammed Ali Jinnah been made the first Prime Minister of India.

Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party supremo, too, made headlines for speaking about Jinnah in the same breath as Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as freedom fighters.

“Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute and became barristers. They helped (India) get freedom and never backed away from any struggle,” Yadav said on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s 146th birth anniversary on October 31.