New Delhi: A writ petition was on Tuesday
filed in the Supreme Court seeking registration of an FIR
against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for assaulting SP MLA Abu Azmi
in the Maharashtra Assembly for taking oath in Hindi instead
of Marathi.
The petition filed by one Salek Chand Jain also sought
a direction to the Election Commission to de-recognise the MNS
for sparking violence "throughout the country" by whipping up
parochial feelings.
Sugreve Dubey, counsel for the petitioner, made an
impromptu mention of the petition before a Bench of Chief
Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices P Sathasivam and B
Sudershan Reddy.
The Bench directed the petitioner to file the same
through the registry.
Referring to the assault of SP Party MLA on the floor
of the house by MNS MLAs, the petition claimed the incident
has provoked country-wide violence in the name of language and
regionalism, thus threatening national unity.
Mulayam seeks PM's intervention
Samajwadi Party President Mulayam
Singh Yadav today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
direct Maharashtra government to lodge a case against MNS
chief Raj Thackeray.
"The MNS MLAs on the directions of Raj Thackeray
misbehaved with SP MLA Abu Asim Azmi for taking oath in Hindi,
our national language, in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha," Yadav
said.
"Was it a sin to speak in Hindi? The Prime Minister must
act immediately and direct the Maharashtra government to lodge
a treason case against the MNS supremo Raj Thackeray and his
four MLAs for degrading democracy and disrespecting the
national language Hindi," he told reporters here.
He said that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
had addressed the UN a number of times in Hindi and garnered
respect for the national language internationally.
Yadav welcomed the suspension of four MNS MLAs by the
Maharashtra Assembly for four years but said it was not
sufficient.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 22:35