Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 4 : Leaders from Mahayuti, protested outside the Maharashtra State Assembly against Samajwadi Party leader and Maharashtra MLA Abu Azmi.
The protest was sparked by Azmi's controversial remarks regarding the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Azmi had reportedly said that Aurangzeb was not a "cruel administrator" and "built many temples". He added that the battle between the Mughal emperor and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj was for state administration and not about Hindu and Muslim.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Police has registered a case against Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi under several sections of the Bharat Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) over his remarks on Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.
The case was filed by Shiv Sena MP, Naresh Mhaske, at Wagle Estate Police Station saying that Azmi has "no right to stay in India."
The case has been registered against Azmi under BNS sections 299, 302, 356(1), and 356(2) following the complaint from Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske.
"A sedition case should be filed against Abu Azmi. He has no right to stay in India. Aurangzeb who destroyed thousands of Hindu temples, tortured women, brutally tortured Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, was against the country, he looted our country...our leader Eknath Shinde has demanded this morning itself that a sedition case should be filed against him. Today we have come here to file a sedition case against him," Mhaske told reporters.
After the uproar over his remarks, Abu Azmi defended his remarks regarding Aurangzeb, saying that the Mughal emperor also destroyed Mosques along with temples.
Refuting the claims that Aurangzeb was 'anti-Hindu', Azmi stated that the emperor had 34 per cent of Hindus in his administration and many of his advisors were Hindus. He further added that there was no need to give a communal angle to the issue.
"If Aurangzeb had destroyed temples, he also destroyed mosques. Had he been against Hindus, 34 per cent of Hindus would not have been with him (in his administration), and his advisors would not have been Hindus. It is true that India was a golden sparrow during his rule. There is no need to give Hindu-Muslim angles to it," Azmi told ANI.
The SP MLA further said that the struggle for power and property carried out by kings in the past "was not religious". Azmi maintained that he hasn't made any remarks against "Hindu brothers".
"The kings back then used to struggle for power and property, but it was nothing religious. He (Aurangzeb) ruled for 52 years, and if he was really converting Hindus into Muslims - imagine the number of Hindus that would have converted. In the 1857 rebellion, when Mangal Pandey started the fight, it was Bahadur Shah Zafar who supported him," Azmi said.
"This country will run by the constitution, and I haven't said a word against Hindu brothers," he added.