I won't say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai': Owaisi to Bhagwat

Mumbai, Mar 14: AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has said he will not chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai,' comments that came against 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 sahab," Owaisi said, at a public rally in Udgir tehsil of Latur district yesterday.

"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.

PTI