Samajwadi Party supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav came out in open defence for his party leader Mohammad Azam Khan on the action by the Election Commission.
“It is not correct to keep Azam Khan and BJP keader Amit Shah in one league. I request the Election Commission to reconsider its decision of ban on Azam Khan,” he said while talking to reporters in Faridpur locality of Bareilly.
Commenting on remarks on the rape accused issue, SP chief claimed he was misquoted. ‘I had always been against punishment to innocent people but guilty should be given strict punishment,’ he claimed. Mohammad Azam Khan also defends himself by saying that whatever he had said was as per the laws and not against the Constitution. “We have revisited the pages of history and expressed our pain and anguish. For past 60 years we had been pained to listen that Muslims are ISI’s agents and not patriots,” he said in Rampur on Saturday. EC had banned Azam and Shah in addressing public meetings and holding road shows in UP for delivering controversial speeches.
Meanwhile Congress asked Mulayam Singh Yadav to take stern action against Azam Khan and must clarify that how his Party’s minister issued such objectionable remarks against former prime minister Rajeev Gandhi as well as Sanjay Gandhi. ``It seems that Azam Khan had lost his mental balance and is using such objectionable words not only for the war martyrs but also against senior leaders of Congress like Rajeev Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, even both of them were already dead”, charged spokesman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) Amarnath Agarwal.
Taking on Azam Khan over his remarks made on former PM, Rajeev Gandhi and his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi, Amarnath said here on Saturday evening that it is a matter of shame on part of senior SP leader that he even forget that no objectionable words were used against persons who were no more. He claimed that not just this, entire country had high praises for outstanding work done by Rajeev Gandhi who even sacrifice his life for the nation. Congress leader threatened that if Mulayam would not take action against Azam Khan in the above matter than Congressmen would be forced to launch an agitation against SP which is partonising such anti-national elements in the state government.