Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly session on Wednesday for remarks he made about Mughal emperor Aurangzeb two days earlier, The Times of India reported.

Maharashtra Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandrakant Patil moved the resolution for Azmi to be suspended, claiming that his comments were an insult to Chhatrapati Sambhaji and disrespected the House, The Indian Express reported.

Azmi was suspended for the remainder of the Assembly’s Budget Session that will conclude on March 26. The session started on Monday.

On Monday, Azmi said that he did not consider Aurangzeb to be a cruel ruler.

“Wrong history is being shown,” the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar MLA told reporters. “Aurangzeb built many temples. I do not consider him a cruel ruler.”

This sparked a controversy, prompting Azmi to retract his statement on Tuesday. The chief of the Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra unit said he had not intended to insult anyone.

“When I quoted a historian’s book about Aurangzeb, I never spoke ill of any of our great men,” he said on social media. “But if my statements, which have been distorted, have offended anyone, I take them back. The Assembly has important work to do and it should not be disrupted over this issue.”

He also said that his initial statement was in response to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma drawing a comparison between Aurangzeb and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday.

Azmi questioned his suspension from the state Assembly.

“To ensure that the House functions, I spoke about withdrawing my statement,” he said on social media. “I did not say anything wrong. Still, there is a controversy and proceedings of the House are being stalled. To ensure that the House functions and some work is done during [the] Budget Session...I withdrew the statement that I made outside the Assembly, not in the House. Still, I have been suspended.”

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also questioned Azmi’s suspension.

“If the basis of suspension starts getting influenced by ideology, then what difference will remain between freedom of expression and slavery,” Yadav asked. “Whether it is our MLAs or MPs, their fearless wisdom is unmatched. If some people think that by ‘suspension’ one can put a rein on the tongue of truth, then this is the childishness of their negative thinking.”

On Tuesday, the Mumbai Police registered a first information report against Azmi for his remarks on the basis of a complaint filed by Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske, who claimed that the Samajwadi Party MLA’s comments had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus by ignoring the Mughal ruler’s acts of oppression.

The FIR was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to outraging religious feelings, insulting religious beliefs and defamation, The Times of India reported.

On Tuesday, leaders of the Mahayuti alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, protested Azmi’s remarks outside the Assembly.