Mumbai, November 9
Eager to prove that they meant business despite their insignificant strength in the Maharashtra Assembly, the 13 MLAs of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) marked the first day of the new Assembly session by assaulting Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Abu Azmi inside the House.

Consequently, the membership of the four MLAs from MNS was suspended for four years.

The war of words between Azmi and Thackeray came to a head when the former stood up to take his oath of office. As Azmi started to take his oath in Hindi, several MNS members swooped on him and pushed him aside. Legislator Ramesh Wanjale uprooted the microphone from the podium, throwing Azmi off his balance. However, the latter continued to take his oath.

When he tried to return to his seat later, Azmi was slapped by MNS legislator Ram Kadam, who also hit him on his chest and shoulders. Fellow MLAs like Meenakshi Patil of the Peasants and Workers Party, Rajendra Darda of the Congress and Ajit Pawar of the NCP rushed to the defense of Azmi and prevented further attacks on him. Shortly afterwards, pro tem Speaker Ganpatrao Deshmukh adjourned the House for half an hour.

The MNS legislators, however, continued with their ruckus and one of them was seen trying to wind a banner around the neck of the SP legislator. Later, Azmi told reporters outside the House that the MNS legislators had insulted the national language by attempting to prevent him from taking oath in Hindi. MNS spokesman Shirish Parkar hit back by quoting Raj Thackeray as saying that Hindi was not the national language of Maharashtra.

Kadam, who was seen roughing up Azmi, was unrepentant. “If people want to live in Maharashtra, they must represent the culture of the state. How come Azmi could not learn the two-line oath written in Marathi?” Kadam said.

“We pleaded before him with folded hands not to insult the 11-crore Maharashtrians, but he did not listen to us,” he added. Meanwhile Azmi, on his part, remained defiant. “I have not insulted the Marathi language, but I cannot accept any insult to my mother tongue,” Azmi said.

After the House was reconvened, CM Ashok Chavan moved a resolution condemning the behaviour of the MNS legislators. The Opposition, BJP, has also supported the resolution. Later in the day, Chavan said the pro tem Speaker had acted on the privilege motion and suspended four MNS legislators, including Kadam, Shishir Shinde, Wanjale and Vasant Geete for four years. “Every member has the freedom of expression inside the House and only the Speaker can stop any MLA from speaking in the Assembly,” Chavan said. Later, Azmi told reporters that one SP MLA had taken oath in Marathi, so it would be wrong to say that the party was against the Marathi language. He accused the MNS of turning a blind eye to Congress MLA Baba Siddiqui who took the oath in English.