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New Delhi, March 4: Appreciating Home Minister Shivraj Patil's statement Tuesday that every Indian had the right to work anywhere in the country including Mumbai, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said rule of law was supreme and would take it own course against anyone trying to divide the nation.
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 "Indians have the right to movement and get settled anywhere in the country. They have the freedom to practice their faiths and perform religious rituals wherever they live," Lalu Prasad told reporters outside parliament after Patil's statement in the Lok Sabha.
He said the rule of law would prevail if anybody infringed on people's fundamental rights.
"The rule of law is supreme, and would certainly takes its own course if anybody anywhere tries to divide the nation through divisive moves," Lalu said, without naming Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, who is in the thick of the controversy over the exodus of north Indians from Maharashtra.
Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal-U (JD-U) with bases in Bihar as well as Uttar Pradesh's key parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), have been raising the issue of north Indians being persecuted in Maharashtra in both houses of parliament.
In February, MNS members took to the streets targeting north Indians in Mumbai and elsewhere in the state. One person died and several people were injured in the vandalism that went on for several days before the Maharashtra government got the situation under control.
The parliament was adjourned several times on the issue since the budget session started Feb 25.
Giving a statement on the violence against north Indians in Maharashtra, the home minister reiterated that right to work in any state was a "constitutional" right for citizens. He added that the Maharashtra government had already taken action against those who were responsible for last month's incidents.
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