20 December,2025 05:34 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Speaking to the media, SP leader Abu Azmi said that anyone who commits violence -- whether Hindu or Muslim -- should be punished strictly. File Pic
Mumbai Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abu Azmi on Saturday condemned reported attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and also slammed Bihar CM Nitish Kumar over hijab row, the ANI reported.
On attack on minorities in Bangladesh, Azmi said that injustice must be opposed everywhere, but added that problems within India should be addressed first.
Speaking to the media, Azmi said that anyone who commits violence -- whether Hindu or Muslim -- should be punished strictly.
"Wherever it happens and to whomever it happens, we should condemn it," he said, according to the ANI.
However, he questioned why issues inside India are often ignored.
"Shouldn't I first condemn what is happening in my own country?" Azmi asked, as per the ANI.
He said Muslims, who fought for India's freedom and never betrayed the nation, are now being labelled as traitors.
"What kind of justice is this?" he added.
Reacting to a viral video showing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar allegedly trying to remove a woman's hijab, Azmi said the act was completely unacceptable.
"What he did is absolutely wrong. I strongly condemn it," Azmi said.
He added that such behaviour from someone holding the post of Chief Minister is serious and legal action should be taken.
"A case should be filed against him," he said, the news agency reported.
Earlier, Bihar Minority Affairs Minister Zama Khan, while defending Chief Minister (CM) Nitish Kumar, said that he had acted in a "fatherly" manner when he pulled the hijab off a young woman's face, news agency PTI reported.
The incident, which happened on Monday at a function where AYUSH doctors were handed appointment letters, triggered a controversy across social media.
"The CM is, perhaps, older than the father of the woman in question. I have a daughter, and I could sense the fatherly affection he had expressed," the Bihar Minister asserted.
More than 1000 AYUSH doctors were handed appointment letters at the function, and 10 of them, including a woman Nusrat Parveen, who was wearing a hijab. All the doctors present at the ceremony received appointment letters from Nitish Kumar at the CM's Secretariat.
The Bihar CM, who was standing on a raised platform, exclaimed upon seeing Nusrat Parveen, "What is this?" and pulled the veil down, exposing her face."
(with ANI and PTI inputs)
