Maharashtra Assembly suspends AIMIM MLA for not saying 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday suspended a member of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Waris Pathan, after he made aggressive gestures and proclaimed that he would never say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” even if he were to die.

A first-time legislator, Mr Pathan, became aggressive after a BJP member, Ram Kadam, referred to his colleague, Imtiaz Jalil’s remarks, and asked whether he would say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.

Mr Jalil had taken objection to the government’s decision to spend hundreds of crores of rupees on a memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea. “When you don’t have money for farmers, it is not good to spend tax payers’ money on the memorial,” he said.

Referring to intolerance over the slogan, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, Mr Jalil said that the issue had been deliberately raked up for the past three to four days, and such things had increased since BJP came to power at the Centre and in the state. He further said that Vijay Mallya, who duped banks of Rs 9,000 crore, would have willingly said, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” as he flew from India because such things were allowed only in India.

Mr Jalil alleged that they were being forced to say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” to prove their patriotism. “India is our country and we love it, but we will not shout slogans under pressure from the Sangh (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh),” he said.

Disrupting Mr Jalil, BJP legislator Mr Kadam asked whether he would say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. To this, not Mr Jalil, but Mr Pathan stood up and said he would not say the slogan.