Azmi demands revocation of his suspension as he did not insult Maratha rulers

Mumbai:Maharashtra Samajwadi Party president and MLA Abu Azmi has written a letter to Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar urging him to withdraw his suspension. He blamed the media for misconstruing his statement regarding Mughal king Aurangzeb.

Mr. Azmi courted controversy for praising Aurangzeb and allegedly insulted Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Following this, he was suspended by the Speaker for the entire budget session. The senior SP legislator said that he did not make any statement on either Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj or Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. However, the media misrepresented his statement on Aurangzeb.

Mr. Azmi, who has won three consecutive Assembly elections from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar constituency, said that while leaving the legislative Assembly on March 3, some journalists followed him and asked him about the statement made by the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who compared Aurangzeb to Rahul Gandhi.

“In response to this question, I referred to historians and said that during Aurangzeb’s reign, India’s borders extended to Burma and Afghanistan. People possessed a huge amount of gold, and the country witnessed a golden era. It was during his rule that the British were attracted to India. I stated that Aurangzeb was a great administrator. There was no religious war between Aurangzeb and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj or Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. It was a battle for power and land. I do not differentiate based on caste or religion,” he wrote in the letter.

Blaming the media for misconstruing his statement, the SP legislator said that the media tried to defame him. “I humbly urge that my suspension be withdrawn as I am not at fault in this case,” he said while providing articles by various historians in support of his argument.

Following his suspension, Mr. Azmi took to social media, calling the action against him “unfair” and questioning whether “two sets of laws” existed in the state. In the letter to the Speaker, he said, “Everything I said was based on the work of various historians and writers. I did not make any controversial remarks about Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. I deeply respect both Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”