Asaduddin Owasi flayed in Parlilament over 'Bharat mata' remark

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi was today attacked in Parliament for his remark that he will not chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ even if a knife is put to his throat. “I say Bharat Mata ki Jai. But kuch logo ko uspe bhi apatti hai (But some people have objection with that also),” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in Lok Sabha without taking the name of Owaisi. Naidu, while replying to a debate on Real Estate Bill, said he considers India as his motherland and wants to repeatedly say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. In Rajya Sabha, noted film personality-turned-MP Javed Akhtar slammed Owais, in a veiled manner.

“There is one leader, who is not a national leader, not even a state leader but a mohalla leader of Hyderabad. He says he will not say ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ because the Constitution does not ask him to do so. The Constitution even does not ask him to wear sherwani (dress) and topi (cap),” he said.

“I don’t care to know whether saying ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ is my duty or not. It is my right,” Akhtar said and then chanted ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ a number of times.

At the same time, he condemned those right-wing extremists also who say Muslims should go to Pakistan. Yesterday RSS, BJP and Shiv Sena had slammed Owaisi for his remarks made during an election rally in Maharashtra.

“I don’t chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat sahab... I won’t utter that (slogan) even if you put a knife to my throat...  Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say: ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” the Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad had said. Senior Shiv Sena leader and minister Ramdas Kadam said Owaisi should go to Pakistan if he doesn’t want to say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.