By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: On the occasion of the 61st Independence Day the Samajwadi Party organized “Anti-Terrorism” rally against terror attacks across the country including Maharashtra.
Led by the party MP Abu Asim Azmi the rally sent the message of peace with letting a white pigeon fly free at Gateway of India after Juma prayer on August 15. Hundreds of party activists participated in the rally. They were chanting anti-terrorism slogans.
On this occasion Abu Asim Azmi appealed to every section of the society to get united in order to root out terrorism. He said that we were one in the struggle for the independence of our nation and rising above the differences of religion, class, caste we will be again one in our fight against terrorism.
The rally included the exhibition of a Temple, Mosque, Church, and a Gurudwara. It also reflected the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ashfaqullah Khan, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Bhagat Singh and others.
The exhibition also had an “effigy of terrorism” and Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian were shown to be fighting with it together.
The party activists had placards in their hands with messages: “Eliminate terrorism and save the nation,” “You can explode bombs in cities but cannot divide our hearts,” “say with pride that we are one” etc.
The spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party Abdul Qadir Choudhary said that we are unfortunate as our nation is inflicted with this menace. But the need of the hour is to get united against it.
Amid heavy security the rally went through the Gateway of India, Azad Maidan, Bhiwandi Bazar, Nagpadah, Mumbai Central, D.A.Road, Kang Circle, Sign railway station, Bandra, and concluded at Mira Road.
TwoCircles.net talked to Fareed Khan, a lawyer and senior member of the Maharashtra unit of the Samajwadi Party.
Mr. Khan said the party organized the rally in order to condemn terrorism in all forms. Your browser may not support display of this image.
He further said, “be it the Jaipur bomb blast, genocide in Gujarat, or Ahmadabad serial bomb blast, we condemn all because these are part of the same coin. We cannot differentiate between these three.”
Asked why SP organized the rally on the Independence Day, Mr. Khan said “because we believe that our freedom is at stake and in danger because of terrorism.”
“The purpose of the rally” Mr. Khan said “was to create awareness among the common people. It is high time that we make a planned effort to root out terrorism from this country. And rally was organized in order to remind every one of this.”
TCN tried to contact Abu Asim Azmi for his comments on this issue but he was not available.
TCN talked to the Editor of a Mumbai based newspaper in this concern. He said that we all need to take a stand on some issues. The rally organized by SP was a part of that.
Samajwadi Party is based in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh where it has been in power and at present it is in opposition. It is trying to create some political space in other states with a substantial amount Muslim population like Maharashtra.
In Maharashtra it has recently raked up Muslim related issues like the issue of use of Urdu in the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC).