Owaisi Dares RSS, Says He Won’t Chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’

Owaisi had challenged RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat saying he won’t chant the slogan if a knife was put to his throat.

File photo of Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM Leader. (Photo: PTI)

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi is back in the news, this time for taking on the RSS. Owaisi has said that he will not chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

His comment came in the backdrop of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s suggestion that the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India.

I don’t chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat <i>sahab. </i>I won’t utter that (slogan) even if you put a knife to my throat. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that one should say <i>Bharat Mata ki Jai. </i>

Owaisi made the comment at a public rally in Udgir tehsil of Latur district on Sunday.

On 3 March, Bhagwat had said the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India. Bhagwat made his comments while speaking about the row over alleged anti-India sloganeering on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. It should be real, spontaneous and part of an all-round development of the youth.

<b>Mohan Bhagwat, RSS Chief</b>

Owaisi said he will “continue to support” the family of Ishrat Jahan.