Those who doesn’t say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ can’t live in India, says CM

Reacting on a fatwa issued by Darul Uloom Deoband that Muslims should not say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that those who are unwilling to praise ‘Bharat Mata’ have no right to stay in the country.

“There are crores of people in this country who feel one must say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and those who can’t praise Bharat Mata don’t have the right to live in this country,” Fadnavis said while speaking at a party workers’ rally in Nashik.

A statement released by Darul Uloom Deoband said, “We have issued a fatwa saying ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ is not in consonance with Islam and we will not say it. But we love our country immensely and we can raise slogans like ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ and ‘Madre Vatan (motherland)’.”

Last month, Mohan Bhagwat of the RSS had said the youth should be taught to chant slogans in support of the country. Referring to the controversy over anti-India slogans raised at an event in the JNU campus, he said. “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 the all-round development of youth.”

Soon after this remarks, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi declared that he will not chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai “even if you put a knife to my throat”, and added that “nowhere in the Constitution does it say that one should say Bharat Mata ki Jai.”