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28-06-2024
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI: A usually staid swearing-in procedure where Indian parliamentarians take their oath of office has exploded into a controversy after veteran opposition legislator Asaduddin Owaisi chanted “Jai Palestine” after reading out the pledge on Tuesday.
In Sanskrit, the word “jai” literally translates to victory, but is used more broadly to connote support, so in effect, Owaisi’s slogan amounted to: “Long live Palestine.”
Parliamentarians from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have accused him of violating the very constitutional pledge he was taking by, according to them, demonstrating loyalty to another nation, a charge Owaisi has denied.
So what really happened, why have Owaisi’s words become controversial, what else happened in the Indian Parliament on Tuesday and what’s next for Owaisi?
Owaisi took his oath as a member of parliament (MP), alongside 542 other legislators who were declared winners of India’s mammoth national election.
The white kurta-clad Owaisi advanced to the podium in Parliament amid scattered applause from other parliamentarians before reading out his oath in Urdu.
“I, Asaduddin Owaisi, who has been elected as a Lok Sabha member, swear in the name of Allah, that I will remain solemn and loyal to the Constitution of India. I will maintain the supremacy and integrity of India and I will fulfil my duties, assigned to me under this position, with loyalty,” he pledged in Urdu. The Lok Sabha is the directly elected lower house of India’s Parliament.
Then, he chanted “Jai Bhim, Jai Meem, Jai Telangana, Jai Filisteen” before stepping away from the podium.
“Jai Bhim” is a pro-Dalit slogan that refers to Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Dalit founding father of the Indian Constitution. Dalits have historically been at the bottom of India’s complex caste hierarchy. Meem is a part of the 
Urdu alphabet that transcribes closely to “M” in English, and Owaisi is believed to have been referring to his party, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), mostly known just as MIM pronounced “meem”.
Telangana is the state Owaisi comes from, and Filisteen is the Urdu and Hindi word for Palestine. Asaduddin Owaisi has been a five-time MP of the Lok Sabha, from Telangana’s Hyderabad constituency since 2004. He comes from a political family and was preceded by his father, Salahuddin Owaisi, a six-time MP of Hyderabad from 1984 to 2004.
Owaisi is also the president of the AIMIM since 2008. The regional party’s manifesto espouses Muslim rights, the broader rights of all religious minorities, as well as Dalit rights. Owaisi is also known for his fiery oratory in Parliament.
During this election, AIMIM was neither part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) spearheaded by the BJP, nor was it allied with the opposition INDIA alliance led by the Congress Party.
In evoking Palestine, and effectively invoking Israel’s war on Gaza, Owaisi drew criticism and allegations that he had signalled his allegiance to Palestine.
BJP members argued that Owaisi flouted the Indian Constitution. The BJP’s information technology head, Amit Malviya posted on X on Tuesday: “As per extant rules, Asaduddin Owaisi can be disqualified from his Lok Sabha membership, for demonstrating adherence to a foreign State that is Palestine”.
Malviya posted a snippet of Article 102 of the Indian Constitution that lays out grounds for disqualification from Parliament, underlining a clause of the article that says a person shall be disqualified for showing adherence to a foreign state.
