Lucknow, Nov 9 (IANS) Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav Monday was all praise for his party's Maharashtra legislator Abu Asim Azmi for defying Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's diktat of taking the oath in the assembly only in Marathi.

Reacting to reports about Azmi being slapped by Thackeray's men in Mumbai after he chose to take the oath in Hindi earlier in the day, Mulayam Singh told a press conference in Lucknow: "I am proud of Azmi that he did not get cowed down by an intimidating Thackeray and stood up to take his oath in the national language."

Azmi, who was earlier Samajwadi Party MP from Mumbai, has now got elected to the state assembly.

Mulayam Singh's man Friday, Amar Singh, too flayed Thackeray and his party over the incident.

"This is an attack on the national language and it is high time the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) realise that they were squarely responsible for giving birth to lumpen elements like MNS," Singh told mediapersons.