RSS Script or Legitimate Oversight? AIMIM and MBT Clash Over EBC Remark

<p>A floor speech by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on Economically Backward Class (EBC) scholarship misuse has triggered a sharp political exchange with his oldest rival, Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) spokesman Amjed Ullah Khan.</p>
<p>Owaisi's questions in the House were not without basis. Pending pre-matric and post-matric scholarship dues running into thousands of crores are a genuine and recurring concern. Pressing the government for a clear breakdown of applicants, rejections and pending cases is a legitimate exercise of legislative oversight. His example of a family with three houses, a car, a scooter and a bike allegedly availing a scholarship meant for poor students was, on the face of it, a fair illustration of why eligibility screening needs tightening.</p>
<p>Where Owaisi ran into difficulty was in how he chose to make the point. He recounted personally visiting a specific student's home and finding that the student's certificates were being withheld by his college over unpaid fees. That detail handed Khan a ready contradiction: an AIMIM leader who has long claimed credit for educating thousands of poor students was now explaining why one such student could not retrieve his own certificates. Whether or not the family genuinely misused the EBC certificate, the example shifted the spotlight onto an alleged fake beneficiary rather than the government's non-payment, which was the issue the minister was originally meant to address.</p>
<p>Khan responded aggressively, asking aloud whether Owaisi's speech had been "scripted from the RSS headquarters in Nagpur". He also pointed to what he described as politically sensitive territory: an AIMIM leader publicly questioning a Muslim family over alleged scholarship misuse, at a time when the wider concern is whether poor students are actually receiving their money at all.</p>
<p>Khan then widened his attack. He brought up Owaisi's personal wealth, his children's education in London, and family functions in the United Kingdom. From there, the argument drifted further into personal disputes, family history, and a reference to the late Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi and a land dispute, turning what started as a scholarship debate into a political slugfest.</p>
<p>The core question of whether poor students are receiving the scholarships they are entitled to was largely left behind. The exchange, at its heart, reflects the long-running contest between AIMIM and MBT over who truly speaks for Hyderabad's Muslim community.</p>