Asaduddin Owaisi: I won't chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’

Mumbai: AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi made it clear that he will not chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai,’ after the backdrop of RSS cheif Mohan Bhagwat’s suggestions 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 on Sunday.

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