Azam Khan criticizes EC for lifting ban on Amit Shah

Samajwadi Party(SP) leader Azam Khan heaped scorn at the Election Commission for its decision to lift campaign ban on a Modi's top aide, Amit Shah who has been accused of delivering hate speeches, while barring former from holding election rallies for allegedly giving a communal colour to the 1999 Kargil war.

Addressing a news conference on Friday in Rampur, Khan said that EC had done injustice with him while it was 'unfortunate' that ban on Shah's campaigning was lifted.

Speaking earlier this month in Uttar Pradesh, Shah was recorded telling voters to reject parties with Muslim candidates. He also said Muslims in the area had raped, killed and humiliated Hindus.

The election commission this month also banned Azam Khan, a senior member of the Samajwadi Party, for speeches that stirred "disharmony between different religious communities".

Khan said that he was only stating the plight of Muslim community and refused to pay an apology as he had not done anything wrong.

"If anyone needs to be punished then it should be the TV channels that have aired shows of one hour on their channel. The newspaper of 1999 which has contained news and mentioned Muslim battalion in a news article should be punished. No one punished them," Khan said.

The commission stated that it was lifting the ban partly because Shah had lodged an appeal in which he vowed not to use "abusive or derogatory language" and that it would monitor his campaigning using video tracking.

Hitting at Amit Shah, Khan said BJP leader was the "face of communalism", and dubbed himself as the "face of secularism" while stressing he should be allowed to campaign.

"This is not a fight. No one has got themselves engaged in fights. Election Commission has taken a wrong decision," Khan added.