Asaduddin Owaisi, leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM), fuelled the nationalism debate further after he remarked that he will not chant the slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ even if he is threatened with dire consequences.
Owaisi’s ‘anti-national’ statement threw open a series of fierce debates on social media. Right-wing outfit Shiv Sena reacted asking him to ‘go to Pakistan’.
Owaisi took the stand after RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat suggested the youth be taught to chant slogans hailing the mother country so as to infuse ‘patriotism’. Bhagwat had made the suggestion on 3 March in the backdrop of the JNU row.
“I don’t chant that slogan, what are you going to do Bhagwat sahab?” asked the Hyderabad MP at a public gathering in Udgir (in the Lattur district of Maharashtra). “Nowhere in the constitution of India it says that one should chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’,” he added.
A PIL was lodged against Owaisi on Tuesday for asserting that he will not chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.
