Echoing popular sentiment on banning American author James Laine's controversial biography of Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi on Saturday said he supported the ban.
"Writing about someone's character under name of freedom of speech and expression is not right. The book contains objectionable matter about Shivaji Maharaj and it has to be banned," Azmi told reporters here. However, the same opposition was not shown by Shiv Sena and other parties when Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin wrote objectionable matter about Allah, he said.
The apex court yesterday upheld the decision of the Bombay High Court to lift the ban on the book by Laine, which, according to the state government, contained material promoting social enmity.
On a query about terror suspect David Coleman Headley mentioned Ishrat Jahan as a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative, Azmi said he never said anything about her innocence.
"I never said anything about she being or not being a terrorist. Her family was poor and I just helped them financially to get her body back from Gujarat," he said.
Ishrat was killed in 2004 along with three other associates in the Gujarat police's encounter on charges of being the LeT terrorist out to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. PTI
