Abu Azmi vows to fight for north Indians' honour
The newfound hero of the north Indian migrant population in Maharasthra, the Samajwadi Party Maharashtra MLA, Abu Azmi in Lucknow on Tuesday said he would fight till the last drop of his blood for the migrants’ honour.
The newfound hero of the north Indian migrant population in Maharasthra, the Samajwadi Party Maharashtra MLA, Abu Azmi in Lucknow on Tuesday said he would fight till the last drop of his blood for the migrants’ honour. He called Maharashtra and Mumbai a mini-Uttar Pradesh and invited people to work there.
Azmi, who undoubtedly is the best thing that has happened to the party at this point in time promised to strength the party in Maharashtra and launch a campaign on Babri mosque demolition anniversary to win Muslims back to the party.
Azmi was given a hero’s welcome in Lucknow at the Samajwadi Party headquarters. A 250-kilogram garland, numerous shawls, a Rampuri topi (cap), bouquets and rounds of applause were given to him for ‘the courage he showed in upholding the honour of national lauguage-Hindi’.
“I will not let you down. Come to Mumbai and Maharasthra. It is a wonderful city and the state. People are sweet and so is their language—Marathi. They are places where we north Indians go as paupers and end up striking gold. Just handful of divisive people should not deter you. Come with dignity, I will ensure that your dignity is not violated till the last drop of my blood,” said Azmi in a fervent 45-minute breathless speech.
He called Raj Thackery an uncouth brat ('kal ka launda’).
Azmi said that UP is like mother to her where he was born, and Maharasthra is a revered mother too for it nurtured him.
Talking on why he took oath in Hindi, he said: “It was the most obvious thing. It’s the national language. I love Marathi, it’s a beautiful language. I don’t know Marathi. By budging before the Raj Thackery’s threat, I would have been wrong to both the Constitution of India as well as our national lauguage. I did not take oath in Urdu. I took it in Hindi. We should not let people like Raj Tackery run the country. They will ruin it.”
He slammed Bal Thackery for his reaction on Sachin Tendulkar’s comment (Sachin had said that he is Indian first). Azmi literally stood in attention and then made a salute gesture honouring Sachin’s ‘Indian first’ comment.
Azmi challenged Congerss to fulfill the promise--of reconstructing mosque at the Babri structure site—which it made to Muslims of the country.
“Construct the mosque there. Then let judiciary carry on the case. We (muslims) are ready to abide by whatever court decides. Demolish mosque if the court decides in favour of temple.”
He also dared Congress to table Librehan Commission report (on Babri masjid ) and implement Shrikrishna Commission report (on Mumbai riots post-Babri masjid demolition).
He said: “I won’t hesitate in saying in Mulayam Singhji’s face that he made a big mistake by supporting Congerss. ‘Aap saanp koh doodh pilaate rahe (you fed milk to a snake). It’s because of you that the Congress is what it is today.”
Azmi said that some people enticed him to join Congress now, but he refused saying that he would only be with one party—Samajwadi Party—and no one else. He said on one hand is Mulayam Singh Yadav who talks about making India a superpower by re-integrating Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with India and on the other there are divisive politicians who want to break the country further down in the name of caste, creed, language and religion.
He said that only Samajwadi Party could ensure a government where police in the name of anti-terror operations would not pick up an innocent student. He said Islam does not permit terrorism and a terrorist should be ‘hanged thrice’.
Samajwadi Party national president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, national general secretary, Amar Singh, state president, Akhilesh Yadav, leader of opposition in UP Vidhan Sabha, Shivpal Singh Yadav, and MP Jaya Bachchan were among those who felicitated Abu Azmi.
Azmi hails from Azamgarh who migrated to Mumbai in 1973. He made a business there that flourished there. He was linked to underworld and was booked under TADA too. He joined Samajwadi Party and after losing several elections, made the party won four Assembly seats in Maharashtra.