All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi spoke out against the ban by the union government on Popular Front of India (PFI) and other Islamist outfits, saying the move was “draconian” and that the party did not support it. In a series of tweets, the Hyderabad MP said that the ban on the organisations was a “ban on any Muslim who wishes to speak his mind.”
“While I have always opposed PFI's approach and supported democratic approach, this ban on PFI cannot be supported. Actions of some individuals who commit crime does not mean that the organisation itself must be banned. SC has also held that mere association with an organisation is not enough to convict someone (sic),” he wrote, referring to the 2021 Supreme Court order that mere association with a terrorist organisation – whether as a member or otherwise – was not enough to be charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, also known as UAPA.
“The way India's electoral autarky is approaching fascism, every Muslim youth will now be arrested with a PFI pamphlet under India's black law, UAPA. Muslims have spent decades in prison before being acquitted by courts. I have opposed UAPA & will always oppose all actions under UAPA. It runs afoul the principle of liberty, which is part of basic structure of the constitution,” Owaisi continued. He also hit out at the Congress, saying that it made the UAPA more stringent with amendments and allowed the BJP to do the same when the latter came to power.
He also referred to Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who only recently secured bail after being imprisoned for nearly two years. Kappan was arrested while on the way to cover the alleged gangrape and murder of a Dalit girl by dominant caste men in the city of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, and was charged under the UAPA. “This case will follow the timeline of Kappan, where any activist or journalist is randomly arrested and takes two years to even get bail,” Owaisi wrote.
While I have always opposed PFI's approach and supported democratic approach, this ban on PFI cannot be supported
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) September 28, 2022
Owaisi also insinuated that the union government’s ban on PFI was hypocritical and asked why right-wing RSS has not been banned, despite the accused in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah bomb blast being associated with the organisation. “Why has the government not banned right wing majoritarian organisations?” Owaisi asked.
The union government on Wednesday banned PFI and eight other organisations for a period of five years, declaring them as unlawful. The other banned organisations include Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women’s Front, Jr Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala. In its notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that PFI was involved in "several criminal and terror cases" and showed "sheer disrespect to the constitutional authority" of the country. It has also said that the organisation had external funds and ideological support which had become an "internal threat" to India.