as the elected members focus on non-issues neglecting the real issues of the community.
Muslims of Mumbai had great hopes from the Samajwadi Party Maharashtra leader Abu Asim Azmi. But unfortunately every time he has disappointed them by raising non-issues neglecting the real issues of the community.
Azmi's political antics are a disappointment. While what the Thackeray group has done has to be condemned, the SP leader's attempt to make political hay from the oath taking incident is also not laudable.
No doubt Azmi hasd managed to win from two Assembly seats in the current assembly poll but his attempt to choose Hindi as his choice of language for the oath can be translated into nothing more than an attempt to woo Muslim voters who are totally disheartened with his leadership.
The biggest challenge before the Congress and the SP is to win the Muslim masses and keep them with the party, as the success and failure of the Congress and the survival of the SP depends on this. While the Congress could adopt a straight and overt technique, wooing Muslim and to get rid of those who play the spoilers, the tricks Azmi and his supporters often involve is childish and non productive.
It is not the first time that Raj Thackeray and Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, who was assaulted by MNS members in the Maharashtra Assembly, have crossed swords. The rivalry between the two leaders began last year, when Raj launched an anti-north Indian campaign, demanding rights for sons-of-the-soil.
The campaign took a violent turn when MNS men thrashed north-Indians, forcing several of them to leave the state. Acting as a defender of north Indians, Azmi got into a war of words with Raj and said he would distribute batons to the people to protect them from MNS men.
Raj retaliated, saying he would distribute swords to Marathi people to take on the batons.
Both the leaders were arrested last year in February under various sections of IPC like provocation with intent to cause riot, promoting enmity between groups on the basis of places of birth, residence among others.
Before the Assembly session began yesterday, a political debate was started as Azmi demanded the House agenda in Hindi. "Hindi is our national language and it should come after Marathi. However, the House agenda and other papers were in Marathi and English. So, I wrote to the Assembly secretary demanding the agenda in Hindi," Azmi, who was elected from Mankhurd in central Mumbai and Bhiwandi in Thane district had said.
Furious over Azmi's demand, Raj, known for his anti-north Indian campaign, said "If Azmi wants the House agenda in Hindi, then he should go to Uttar Pradesh."
Born in 1955 in Manjeer Patti in Azamgarh into a zamindar (landlord) family, Azmi one of seven brothers moved to Mumbai in 1973 to start his professional career. Working in his father's embroidery unit in the crowded bylanes of the Bhendi Bazaar, Azmi made the transformation to enterprising businessmen by starting a recruitment agency sending people to the Gulf and dabbling in real estate.
Two decades later, the college dropout who completed his BA in 2001, has made his mark in Maharashtra's politics.
Azmi has been arrested in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. Azmi says his year-long detention under the Terrorist And Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act at Arthur Road jail for providing air tickets to 11 conspirators of the 1993 bomb blasts case was the turning point in his life. Azmi was later acquitted.
Azmi's zeal in taking on `fascist and communal forces' may be well known but his detractors accuse him of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. Azmi's men have supported the Shiv Sena in the Nashik Municipal Corporation in attaining power while detractors say he has business partnerships with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leaders.
Every time Muslims celebrate the victory of Samajwadi candidate the euphoria is short lived by the strange antics adopted to woo Muslims. Reacting to an editorial against him in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Mr. Azmi said in the Vidhan Bhavan precincts on Tuesday: “Thackeray has gotten old and speaks like a child.” Angered by his remark, Sena supporters' gheraoed him, while some attacked his shop at Colaba.
Against the backdrop of these antics, need for a leader who could steer the community out of the current morass has never been felt more severely. Verbal feuds on emotive issues do not serve any purpose. Muslim Politicians like Abu Asim Azmi should focus more on constructive activities at the grassroots levels instead of playing to the gallery all the time.
