Chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' should be a matter of choice: Salman Khurshid

New Delhi, Mar 15: A day after AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said that he won't chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai,' senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid has reacted over the matter.

Reacting over RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's suggestion that the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India, former Union Law Minister said that it should be a matter of choice.

Khurshid further said that nobody should be pressurized for the same.

Cong leader was quoted as saying, "It gives us pride when we sing the national anthem, to see our flag, to say 'Vande Matram'... Some people don't want to do it, it's their choice".

Earlier, taking a dig at Mohan Bhagwat, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said that he will not chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

"I don't chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat sahab," Owaisi said, at a public rally in Udgir tehsil of Latur district

"I won't utter that (slogan) even if you put a knife to my throat," Owaisi said, amid loud applause by the crowd. "Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say: Bharat Mata ki Jai," he said.

On March 3, Bhagwat had said the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India, comments which came against the backdrop of the row over alleged anti-India sloganeering on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

"Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' (hail mother India). It should be real, spontaneous and part of all-round development of the youth," the RSS chief had said. Owaisi said he will "continue to support" the family of Ishrat Jahan.

OneIndia News

(with inputs from PTI)