Why Owaisi offered legal help to 'ISIS linked men'

Within a few moments of the newsbreak on June 29 morning that 11 Muslim youth had been detained in Hyderabad's Old city on charges of being part of an alleged Islamic State terror module, the Hindutva elements on Twitter started doing what they love best.

Targeting Asaduddin Owaisi.

"What is Owaisi doing?" went the rhetoric, the assumption being that the Hyderabad MP was responsible for the activities of each and every person in his constituency.

After the Friday prayers, when Owaisi announced his party's decision to extend legal help to the five youths who were eventually arrested (six out of 11 were let off), "What is Owaisi doing?" acquired a more shrill pitch.

Providing cover in court was seen as a non-patriotic act, something that makes many in the right wing put Owaisi in the same bracket as the five accused.

One channel, like always, went over the top, with the hashtag #OwaisiTerrorPolitics. A petition seeking the lodging of a case against Owaisi was filed in a Meerut court, claiming that his deed amounted to treason and promoted terrorism.

A BJP lawyer in Hyderabad filed a complaint with the Cyberabad Police, arguing that Owaisi's stand "Is giving oxygen to terrorists?''. BJP MLA in Hyderabad, Raja Singh demanded that Owaisi be arrested and his party de-recognised.

In the BJP book, any Muslim accused of terrorism, is guilty until proven innocent.

Now the barrister in Asaduddin Owaisi does not practise any more but the legal eagle in his mind still soars high. Owaisi is quick to point out that even if he had not provided legal help, the court would have.

Didn't it do so for 26/11 Pakistan terrorist Ajmal Kasab? Did "the nation wants to know" hashtag #IndiaTerrorPolitics back then?

Owaisi makes it clear that he is not asking for the boys to be released, nor is he giving them a certificate of innocence. Like anyone in a court of law, they are entitled to legal defence.

Article 39A of the Constitution of India says: "The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities."

Giving it back to the BJP, Owaisi also points out that Subramanian Swamy is defending Asaram Bapu, accused of rape and asks if that is acceptable.

The tendency to treat every arrested person as guilty, especially in terror cases, proved costly for several Hyderabadis.

After the Mecca Masjid blast in 2007, nearly 100 Muslim youths were taken into custody, charged with "waging war against the state", subjected to third degree (as an independent one man commission reported).

All of them were acquitted, after spending several months behind bars, which is why Hyderabad is sceptical of the NIA claims about the five youths, arrested last week.

Those who are attacking Owaisi need to know that he himself is under threat from Islamic State elements. Threats were issued to him over Twitter last year and videos posted, branding him a non-Muslim, who must be dealt with.

In the first 48 hours since the arrest, a desperate attempt was made to give a communal colour to the terror plot, with mischievous leaks that the five men planned to get meat and throw it inside a temple to spark off a communal riot in the sensitive Old city.

But none of this finds mention in the NIA remand report. The media is used as a tool by many in the security apparatus to plant information and an unquestioning media, looking for sexy headlines, falls for them hook, line and sinker. And social media with every retweet, multiplies the lie or half-truth manifold.

But when politicians are involved, it is obvious they will also play the political game. Owaisi is planning a big foray into Uttar Pradesh during the 2017 Assembly elections.

The Muslim vote, thanks to the community's unhappiness with the Samajwadi Party and the BJP's aggressive Hindutva posting (Kairana, being the latest instance), is up for grabs.

Owaisi, even though he downplays any pan-India ambitions, realises that the political theatre of UP offers him a platform, bigger than anywhere else.

By doing something which the law of the land allows him to, Owaisi is also reinforcing the victimhood narrative. That it is always Muslims who are arrested, that it is Muslims always who suffer from miscarriage of justice.

The attacks by the right wing to his offer of legal help only boost his "Main Hoon Na" in the community. Politically, this helps Owaisi.

Over the past some years, Owaisi has been assiduously trying to build a Muslim-Dalit vote bank. When Yakub Memon was to be hanged for the Mumbai blasts of 1993, he said he was being taken to the hangman's noose because of his religion.

That invited a backlash with Owaisi being labelled as a supporter of a terrorist. He was there at the Hyderabad University when Rohith Vemula committed suicide, in what was built up as the targeting of a Dalit student by the right-wing.

In the latest case, if he had not extended legal aid, other Muslim parties in Hyderabad would have done so and Owaisi can hardly afford competition in his backyard.

When the slogan of "Bharat Mata ki jai" became a talking point, Owaisi refused to join in, saying he will prefer to say "Jai Hind" and "Hindustan zindabad" instead. The act prompted many to question his patriotism.

A patronising poet-scriptwriter Javed Akhtar referred to Owaisi in the Rajya Sabha as a "mohalla leader from Hyderabad". Owaisi's plain-speaking which often comes across as sounding shrill, is resented by many.

He cannot fault them because his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi's "let the police move away for 15 minutes and 25 crore Muslims will show our might to 100 crore Hindus" comment of 2012 is thrown at him, cited as an example to show the communal mindset of the brothers.

Last month, MNS leader Raj Thackeray cut a cake with Asaduddin Owaisi's face on it. Thackeray's poor sense of humour was to show that he will put a knife to Owaisi who had said that he will not say "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" even at knife-point. Owaisi chose not to join the issue with Thackeray, letting him have the cake and eat it too.