NEW DELHI: Muslims should "fight back" and participate in politics to become masters of their destiny, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said today in response to the row over Rahul Gandhi's reported remark that the Congress is a "party for Muslims".
The Congress has dismissed the report in an Urdu daily as a "rumour".
"Muslims should accept reality, drink this poisonous chalice, stand up, fight back, participate in politics," the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen chief tweeted, and told the community to "become masters of your destiny".
Owaisi tagged a media report on the editor of the Urdu daily defending the story and saying that he stands by the remarks made by Gandhi during his meeting with Muslim intellectuals last week.
Adding an emotional twist to his tweet, Owaisi also wrote a few lines of the popular Urdu ghazal, "Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon, Na kisi ke dil ka qaraar hoon (Neither the light of anyone's eye, nor the solace of anyone's heart)."
Following the controversy following Gandhi's reported remark, which led to several BJP leaders accusing it of divisive politics, the Congress has asserted that it is a party of 132 crore Indians.