English
Pune, February 15: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi questioned why campaign notices before the Pune Municipal corporation polls, were served only to him and not to other political leaders like Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar or Ajit Pawar. Slamming the police for serving him the notice, Owaisi deemed that it was “an assault on the Constitution’s Right to Freedom of Speech”.
The main reason why the Pune police slapped the notice on Owaisi seems to be based on allegations of inflaming communal tensions. Quickly denouncing the charges, IE reported Owaisi as having said, “The Pune police in their notice had stated that I try to divide communities through my inflammatory speeches and hence, there might be a threat to my life in Pune. I would like to say that those who killed Gandhi or Kalburgi are the ones who would want to kill me.” The Muslim leader also added that if a Member of Parliament could not speak his mind, there was a serious threat to the Constitutional freedoms guaranteed to common citizens.
The MP was eventually given permission to hold his campaign speech. However, the Hyderabad resident claimed that he had never been issued notices for inflaming communal tensions before. Calling it an insult to the rule of law and attempt to weaken the democratic set of the country, Asaduddin Owaisi further alleged that the Khadak police station had issued him with the notice as soon as he had landed in Pune.
In his address, Owaisi made it a point to criticise his opponents such as Prime minister Narendra Modi and Sharad Yadav for not delivering on promises. The Pune Municipal Corporation elections will be held along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections on February 21. Approximately 1,090 candidates will be contesting the polls from parties such as the BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena. The counting of the votes and the results are set to be announced on February 23, 2017.
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