MP Assembly passes censure motion against Asad Owaisi

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi faced more heat today for his remark that he won't chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' with Madhya Pradesh Assembly unanimously passing a censure motion against him while a PIL seeking legal action was filed before the Bombay High Court. Congress member Jitu Patwari brought the censure motion slamming Owaisi during the Zero Hour of the budget session of the MP Assembly underway in Bhopal. State Legislative Affairs Minister and BJP leader Narottam Mishra seconded Patwari's censure motion and condemned Owaisi, saying that such display of anti-national mentality is being noticed since the last one-and-a-half years. He said that India has loved and respected both "Ram and Rahim" equally, and slammed people sympathising with divisive forces. Panchayat Minister Gopal Bhargava also rose to join in condemning Owaisi and tried to take a dig at the Congress. But Speaker Sitasaran Sharma sensing a tussle between the treasury and opposition Congress, got up and announced the passing of censure motion unanimously against the AIMIM leader amid chants of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai" by members including Congress' Patwari and Hardeep Singh Dang. The Public Interest Litigation(PIL) filed by Pune-based social activist Hemant Patil urged the Bombay High Court to take legal action against both Owaisi and AIMIM MLA Warris Pathan for refusing to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. The PIL urged the court to order an inquiry into the speeches made by the duo in the recent past in which they had allegedly showed dishonour to motherland by such remarks. The petition contended that the speeches made by them amounted to spreading communal disharmony and hurting national integrity and unity of the country. Such remarks are anti-national and have the tendency to break the social fabric of the society and divide the people on the basis of religion and parochial issues, said Patil, who is heading an NGO "Bharat against Corruption." The petition also demanded a ban on AIMIM saying that remarks made by the duo amounted to violation of People's Representative Act and were against the basic principles of the Constitution. It further sought a direction to the Maharashtra government, Director General of Police and Secretary of Home Department to call for the records in respect of speeches delivered by Owaisi at a public rally in Latur and Pathan's utterances in the state legislative assembly that they would not say "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". The petition alleged that Owaisi and his partymen are continuously engaged in delivering speeches which spread communalism and endanger national integration. "Such fissiparous tendencies to divide people on the basis of religion or regionalism threaten to break the unity of the country where people of different faiths are living together." Unrelenting in its attack on Pathan, the Shiv Sena said that he has been let off with a "soft" punishment and wanted him to be permanently suspended from the state assembly and disqualified from contesting the polls.