Post MNS slapping and Sena protest, Abu Asim Azmi life under threat: SP leader Amar Singh

Amar Singh, leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP), has said that there is threat to the life of Abu Asim Azmi, the party’s member in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Azmi was assaulted the other day by legislators belonging to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for having taken oath Hindi instead of Marathi in the Maharashtra Assembly, defying the directive of MNS chief Raj Thackeray to take oath only in Hindi. Later, while speaking to the media, Abu Asim Azmi had said that Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena patriarch, was “old” and “child-like.” This led to protests by the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra Assembly on the next day.

Photo: Abu Asim Azmi, SP MLA in Maharashtra Assembly slapped by MLAs from MNS

Amar Singh told a news conference in New Delhi that an anonymous caller rang him up on his mobile phone and told him that Abu Asim Azmi “will not be spared for his comments on Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.”

Amar Singh had earlier said that he received 3 anonymous phone calls threatening him with “dire consequences” if he visited Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Ganpatrao Deshmukh, the pro-tem Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, has order an investigation into the “behaviour” of Abu Asim Azmi within the Assembly and on its premises.

The pro-tem Speaker ordered the inquiry after repeated allegations by the Opposition members that Azmi had made “provocative speeches” as well as “insulted” Bal Thackeray, the chief of the Shiv Sena.

Eknath Khadse, Leader of Opposition, demanded that the government also should investigate the charge levelled by the Opposition parties that Azmi indulged in inciting people outside the Assembly.

Members of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena demanded that Abu Asim Azmi be arrested for his “misbehaviour” on the opening day of the Assembly session and for his remarks he made later against Bal Thackeray.

A group of Shiv Sainiks held a protests outside the Maharashtra Assembly, shouted slogans against Abu Asim Azmi and tried to burn his effigy. The police succeeded in bringing the situation under control and arrested some activists of the Shiv Sena.

Meanwhile, the attack on Abu Asim Azmi by the legislators of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for having taken oath in Hindi in the Maharashtra Assembly has come in for sever criticism from various organisations.

In a press release, Kiran Moghe, Maharashtra state president of the Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana (AIDWA), strongly condemned “the crude display of muscle power” by the newly elected MLAs of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

While it is necessary to safeguard the Marathi language and culture, she added in the press release, turning the Vidhan Sabha into a battleground and making the matter into an emotional issue in order to foster narrow-minded politics is unacceptable.

The Yuvak Kranti Dal said that the new legislators were perhaps “illiterate” of the ways of democracy.

The oath-taking is a solemn occasion, and the Constitution of India has listed the languages in which one may take oath, a press release from the Yuvak Kranti Dal said.