New Delhi: With the comments of Bal Thackeray against Biharis and North Indian MPs creating a row, the Maharashtra Government on Wednesday asked the police to seek legal opinion on possible action against the Shiv Sena chief.
"I have asked the police to seek legal opinion and then proceed accordingly," he told reporters when asked about the action being taken against Thackeray, whose editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna led to a breach of privilege notice against him in the Lok Sabha.
Deshmukh, who had a meeting with party Chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday, said he held talks with Home Minister Shivraj Patil on the matter. He, however, said the issue did not come up during his the meeting with Gandhi.
He said a legal opinion is needed to be taken on the whole issue as without determining the section under which action was to be taken, nothing can be done. In the editorial, Thackeray targetted Biharis, saying they were an 'unwanted lot' in all parts of the country.
Replying to questions, Deshmukh said the exodus of North Indian people from Maharashtra following the recent incidents have totally stopped.
He blamed a section of the electronic media for exaggerated projection of an incident in Mumbai against North Indians recently and noted that a channel showed the single shot as many as 87 times.
In Mumbai, Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) K L Prasad also said that the police will be going through the editorial in detail and, will seek legal opinion about possible action.
"Elections are to be held soon and leaders will adopt to such tactics to mislead the masses. As a citizen, it is my appeal to the leaders not to issue any provocative statements," he said.
Earlier in the day, the comments had its echo in the Lok Sabha when RJD's Devendra Yadav demanded action against Thackeray.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee too said that the Shiv Sena chief's references amounted to contempt of the House. The Speaker asked him 'to follow the procedure' for any action to be taken.
Later Yadav, who hails from Bihar, gave a notice of breach of privilege against Thackeray, accusing him of "lowering the dignity of MPs as also Parliament." Some MPs from UP were also a party to the notice.
In his comments, Thackeray also targetted MPs from Bihar and UP, saying: "The UP-Bihari MPs have shown their ingratitude towards Mumbai and Maharashtra with an anti-Marathi tirade in Parliament."
Stung by Thackeray's salvo, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention by convening a meeting of political leaders of Bihar and Maharashtra to sort out the 'differences' and put the raging controversy at rest.
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