In a scathing attack against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Navneet Rana has said if police were removed from duty for '15 seconds, the brothers would not know from where they came and where they went'.
The comments drew sharp criticism from Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi.
Revanth Reddy, who referred to her comments without mentioning her name, said the election officials should book a criminal case and arrest the "Parliament member who made provocative comments".
Rana's blistering attack came in response to a 2013 controversial speech by AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi in which he said it would take them only "15 minutes" to balance the "Hindu-Muslim ratio" in the country if the police were removed.
Rana, the BJP's candidate from Maharashtra's Amravati Lok Sabha seat, said, "The younger one (Akbarauddin) says remove the police for 15 minutes and we will show what we can do. Let me tell the younger one, you will take 15 minutes; it will be only 15 seconds for us. If you remove police for 15 seconds, you won't know where you came from and where you went away."
Rana shared a video clip of her making the comments on social media platform X.
She was campaigning in support of BJP's Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate K Madhavi Latha and others in Telangana on Wednesday.
Addressing an election rally in Hyderabad on Thursday evening, Revanth Reddy asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah approved of the comments of their party leader.
"If they don't, she should be suspended from the party," said Revanth Reddy, who is also the president of the Congress in Telangana.
"Yesterday, a Parliament member came to Telangana and spoke in a way of provoking religion by saying we will eliminate minorities in the country if given 15 seconds," he said.
He asked if Hyderabad would attract investments and continue to have livelihood opportunities if law and order is disturbed as allegedly intended by the BJP.
Asked about Rana's comments, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi told reporters he would like to tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give even one hour.
"Modi ji has power, give 15 seconds, rather take one hour. We also would like to see how much humanity is left or not. Do it. Who is scared? Who is stopping you? The Prime Minister is yours in Delhi. RSS is yours. Everything is yours. Tell us where to come. We will come," he said.
On Rana's reported comments that a vote to AIMIM would go to Pakistan, Owaisi responded by saying that the RSS and BJP have hatred towards the country's diversity and pluralism. The RSS ideology should be defeated, he said.
Referring to Modi's impromptu visit to Pakistan when he took charge as PM, Owaisi said he had suddenly landed in Pakistan from Afghanistan, and reached former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's residence in 2014. "What was it?," he asked.
Owaisi further pointed out that Modi described Muslims as infiltrators and also said that Muslims produce more children, and that the same language is being used by Rana.
When told that the controversy started with the comments of '15 minutes' by his brother Akbaruddin in 2013, he said the matter was decided in courts.
