Maharashtra Assembly adjourned twice over Azmi issue

The Azmi issue was raised through a point of propriety during the zero hour by Leader of the Opposition Narayan Rane, He informed the House that on March 30, police officials had collected the original audio cassette of Azmi’s objectionable speech after a panchnama. Rane pointed out that before beginning his speech, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi had taken the names of those sitting on the dias, including Malik. Rane said that it indicated that Malik was present at the meeting, on the dias, when Azmi made the anti-national statements. Hence, he demanded that Malik should be made a co-accused in the case.

Rane further read out some excerpts from the panchnama, in which Azmi was reported to have said in his speech: "Remember, if you play any mischief with our religion, I would not bother if the country went into pieces…. Muslim brethren should not tolerate any insult to their religion."

Rane accused the Democratic Front government of shielding Malik and demanded that the minister be arrested under Section 34 of the IPC.

Malik, who was present in the House, said that though he had attended the meeting, he had delivered a speech and left before Azmi could begin his speech. Malik said that if there was anything objectionable in his own speech, he was prepared to resign.

However, when Malik started making statements against the BJP, the Shiv Sena and BJP members objected to the same, rushing to the well of the House shouting slogans. The Speaker expunged Malik’s remarks but the Opposition was not satisfied and the House was adjourned for ten minutes at 2:38 p.m.

When the House reassembled, Opposition members continued their slogans and demanded that Malik apologise. Gopinath Munde demanded that Malik be ousted from the state cabinet and tried as a co-accused in the Azmi case. The Opposition members continued to demand an apology from Malik for his anti-BJP remarks.

Malik then told the House that if any Opposition member proved that he had made any anti-national remarks or that he was unpatriotic, he would not only resign from the state cabinet but also immolate himself. However, he again made some controversial statements on the BJP, creating another uproar in the House.

Gujarathi expunged the references but Opposition members continued to protest and shout slogans. Gujarathi kept on reiterating that since the words had been expunged there could be no discussion on the issue, but the din continued. After reading out three calling attention motions and putting to vote the demands of the general administration department, the housing and special assistance department, the house was adjourned again for 20 minutes at 2:53 p.m.

When the House assembled again, Malik told the House that he was not present when Azmi had reportedly made the objectionable remarks.