Attack on Azmi an assault on idea of India: Congress

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) legislator Ram Kadam, who was seen slapping and hitting Samajwadi Party lawmaker Abu Asim Azmi inside the Maharashtra assembly Monday, claimed that Azmi had insulted the "11 crore Maharashtrians" by taking the oath in Hindi. Interacting with mediapersons outside the Maharashtra legislature, Kadam said that the MNS had "requested him with folded hands" to take the oath in Marathi "but that man (Azmi) did not heed us".

November 9th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav Monday was all praise for his party's Maharashtra legislator Abu Asim Azmi for defying Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's diktat of taking the oath in the assembly only in Marathi. Reacting to reports about Azmi being slapped by Thackeray's men in Mumbai after he chose to take the oath in Hindi earlier in the day, Mulayam Singh told a press conference in Lucknow: "I am proud of Azmi that he did not get cowed down by an intimidating Thackeray and stood up to take his oath in the national language." Azmi, who was earlier Samajwadi Party MP from Mumbai, has now got elected to the state assembly.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) members Monday attacked state Samajwadi Party chief Abu Azmi inside the legislature after he insisted on taking his oath as a legislator in Hindi. The day's proceedings started smoothly with several members taking oath, wary of a so-called 'open letter' by MNS chief Raj Thackeray this morning urging all 288 legislators to take their oath in Marathi.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Four legislators of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) were Monday suspended for four years by the Maharashtra assembly for assaulting Samajwadi Party lawmaker Abu Asim Azmi for taking the oath as legislator in Hindi. Besides the stringent punishment of suspending them for four years, the house also barred the four legislators - all first-timers - from entering Mumbai and Nagpur whenever the assembly sessions are held in these cities.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Samajwadi Party activists protested the attacks on their state chief Abu Asim Azmi by pelting stones at state transport buses in Thane district, police said. A mob of Samajwadi Party workers pelted stones at three state transport buses in Bhiwandi town of Thane district, the constituency of Azmi.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Four legislators of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) were suspended by the Maharashtra assembly Monday for four years for attacking a Samajwadi Party member for taking his legislator's oath in Hindi. The four legislators are: Shishir Shinde, Ram Kadam, who had slapped and punched Samajwadi Party member Abu Asim Azmi, Vasant Gite and Ramesh Banjle.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - There was pandemonium on the first day of the new Maharashtra assembly Monday when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) legislators roughed up Samajwadi Party member Abu Asim Azmi for taking the oath of office in Hindi. As Azmi started to take his oath in Hindi, several MNS members swooped on him and pushed him aside.

November 9th, 2009 PATNA - The attack on Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Asim Azmi inside the Maharashtra assembly Monday for taking the legislator's oath in Hindi drew widespread condemnation in Bihar, including from politicians Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said: "It is shocking how an elected legislator was attacked inside the assembly for taking his oath in Hindi.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) members Monday attacked state Samajwadi Party chief Abu Asim Azmi inside the assembly when he insisted on taking his oath as a legislator in Hindi. The day's proceedings started smoothly with several members taking oath, wary of a so-called 'open letter' by MNS chief Raj Thackeray this morning urging all 288 legislators to take their oath in Marathi.

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi put forward the idea of providing electronic health card to every child in the country. He said this during the presentation of various awards for health care held here on Tuesday.

April 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Crowds waiting patiently at a political rally in Shirdi in Maharashtra were rewarded when actress Urmila Matondkar came on stage. Urmila drew more cheers and catcalls than the Republican Party of India (RPI) candidate Ramdas Athawale for whom she had come to campaign.

April 8th, 2009 MUMBAI - Deepak Shinde, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Sangli Lok Sabha seat, Wednesday withdrew his candidature in favour of Ajit Ghorpade, a rebel candidate who is Congress legislator from Kavathe-Mahankal. The Congress's official nominee is sitting MP, Pratik Patil, the grandson of late former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantrao Patil.

March 28th, 2009 MUMBAI - Upset over an 'unfair share' of seats for the community in Maharashtra in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, Muslim leaders Saturday called for supporting only 'deserving Muslim candidates' irrespective of their party affiliations. Addressing media persons here Saturday evening, All India Ulema Association president Maulana Syed Athar Ali claimed Muslims constitute a significant 18 percent of the total electorate in Maharashtra, while Dalits and other backward castes (OBCs) constitute 68 percent.

March 7th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Samajwadi Party is hopeful of working out an alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha polls though they face problems in seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh, a top Samajwadi Party leader said here Friday. Samajwadi Party state president Abu Asim Azmi said the near-collapse of talks at the central level did not mean that the doors to forge an alliance at the regional and state levels have been closed.

January 12th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Samajwadi Party is planning to pit its Maharashtra unit chief Abu Asim Azmi against Priya Dutt from the Mumbai Northwest Lok Sabha constituency after naming her brother and Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt or his wife Manyata as its candidate from Lucknow. The prestigious seat in Mumbai was earlier represented by Priya Dutt's father, late Sunil Dutt of the Congress, for five terms and briefly by the Shiv Sena which won it in 1996 and 1998.