Post-mortem: Look who all fuelled Mumbai mayhem

Mumbai: While Raj Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is allegedly responsible for the violence in Mumbai, leaders of other parties are clearly no less guilty.

In fact, a post-mortem of the events leading to the Mumbai mayhem shows it was people like Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, who probably fueled the fire with angry outbursts in the first place.

"Agar humare logo ka khoon bahega to hum chup nahi rahenge (If our people have to shed blood, we will not remain silent)," Azmi, a Rajya Sabha member and the Maharashtra President of Samajwadi Party, said at a rally in Mumbai last weekend.

This statement by Azmi last Sunday was allegedly the provocation for the violence that Mumbai has witnessed in the last six days.

The Mumbai police is now scrutinising this speech to initiate action against Azmi as the on-stage drama and the emotionally charged statements made by Azmi clearly suggest that he was indeed provocative.

"Main wada karta hun beta samne ayege to utha ke patak donga (I vow here that I will throw away whoever comes my way)," Azmi said in his speech.

In fact, it took his party President Mulayam Singh to literally grab the microphone from him during the SP rally last Sunday in order to stop him, but not before Mulayam himself assured him help.

"I want to assure Abu Asim that if need be I will also come from UP," Mulayam said.

While Azmi had crossed the limit, the other so-called north Indian leader Sanjay Nirupam was more tactful. He chose to stage a peaceful protest on Wednesday in an attempt to provoke the MNS leaders and activists to retaliate. His language, though, was politically correct.

"Mumbai ko na lathi ki jaroorat hai, na talwaar ki. Agar zaroorat hai, toh pyar ki! (Mumbai doesn't need batons or swords. If anything, Mumbai needs love)" the Congress MP said.

But before Nirupam could reach Raj Thackeray's residence with about 1,000 protestors, the police arrested him. The real question though is while Raj and his men may have been responsible for the dirty street fight, how are the police going to deal with people like Azmi and Nirupam?

"We are going through the tapes and have asked for legal opinion before initiating any legal action," Mumbai Police Joint Commissioner (law and order), KL Prasad, said.