BOMBAY, 17 July 2006 — Samajwadi Party leader and the member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament) Abu Azmi yesterday warned the Congress-led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra to cancel the visit of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Bombay today saying it would only increase communal tension further in an already increasingly volatile Bombay following Tuesday’s bomb blasts.

“If the government fails to cancel Modi’s visit, the Samajwadi Party activists and Muslims will hold protest rallies and not allow Modi to address any rally” Azmi said. Azmi said that Muslims all over the country were being targeted for the Bombay blasts, and warned that if the persecution of Muslims did not immediately stop, then more than 2 million Muslims would be compelled to come on to the streets of Bombay and that would be a very difficult situation for the government to control.

Azmi said that Muslims were being looked upon as if they were all terrorists. Every Muslim is as much a patriot as a member of any of any other religion or community and political parties should refrain form labeling all Muslims as terrorists.

In response to Abu Azmi’s call, BJP leader Gopinath Munde told journalists that the anti-terrorism rally by Narendra Modi would be held as scheduled today. “The BJP is going ahead with the rally and Narendra Modi will definitely address it, come what may,” said Munde who asked what Abu Azmi’s standing was? Is he a national leader? And what right has he to oppose the rally that is being held to condemn the bomb blasts, Munde asked.

The Samajwadi Party leader demanded judicial inquiries into Tuesday’s bomb blasts that killed over 300 people, the violence in Bhiwandi and the disturbances following the desecration of the statue of Meena Thackeray, wife of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

“I’m under police surveillance in connection with Tuesday’s serial bomb blasts and the Bhiwandi violence but I am not concerned about it. There are some elements that are bent on creating riots in Bombay and Maharashtra to target me in particular and the Samajwadi Party in general,” claimed Azmi.

Taking a dig at BJP leader Gopinath Munde for putting the blame on Azmi for engineering riots in Bhiwandi and demanding his arrest, Azmi said, “Instead of sloganeering against me in the Assembly, why doesn’t the BJP and the Opposition parties support police investigations into the bomb blasts and violence in Bhiwandi.”

Referring to the situation in Bhiwandi, Azmi claimed that Muslims there were leaving the town due to police high-handedness.