Now, Sainiks bay for Azmi’s blood

A day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) MLAs assaulted Abu Azmi over his taking the oath of office in Hindi, rival Shiv Sena jumped on the bandwagon. Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde and Rajan Vichare stopped Azmi’s car on the assembly premises on Tuesday and asked him whether he had said things against their patriarch Bal Thackeray.

Azmi had commented on an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamna, saying: “Bal Thackeray is behaving childishly due to his old age.” The editorial had criticised Azmi for taking the oath in Hindi. “Azmi is a rich politician of Mumbai with property worth Rs200 crore, which he has earned in Maharashtra. Why cannot he learn Marathi? The Azmi beating episode was stage-managed for publicity,” the editorial said.

Azmi replied in the negative to Shinde and Vichare, after which he was allowed to go. But the Sena MLAs realised that Azmi had lied to them when they saw footage of his comments on TV. Shinde then warned that the party will not allow Azmi to go around freely in the city. “We will take out Azmi’s procession on a donkey if he speaks anything wrong against Saheb (Thackeray),” Shinde said.  

The Sena’s Subhash Desai said the party will not tolerate it if their leader is insulted. ‘We will meet home minister RR Patil and complain against Azmi,’ he said. Surprisingly, the MNS too threatened Azmi for speaking against Thackeray. ‘We will not tolerate a single word against Balasaheb. We will force Azmi to leave Mumbai if he speaks anything against him,’ MNS leader Bala Nandgaokar said.