Bharat Mata ki Jai: The controversy around the slogan

Even as this month began, the Darul Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from chanting the slogan

The country has been embroiled in a debate over nationalism since the Jawaharlal Nehru University fracas and the recent controversy over certain leaders refusing to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' has only added fuel to the fire. 

Even as this month began, India’s largest Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from chanting the slogan.

The issue gathered steam when, on March 16, 2016, the Maharashtra Assembly had unanimously suspended Waris Pathan, an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA from Mumbai, after he said he would not chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' even at the cost of his life.

Pathan's refusal to chant the slogan and the incident came days after the issue flared up between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and AIMIM. 
 

Here is how the story began and how it has developed since last month: 

March, 2016:

1) Days before the incident in the Maharashtra Assembly, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says the younger generation “needs to be taught to hail Mother India”. “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,” says Bhagwat. Bhagwat later tones down his remark during a visit to Lucknow, saying nobody needs to be forced to raise the slogan.

2) “I don’t chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat sahab,” says Asaduddin Owaisi, Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad and president of AIMIM, at a rally in Udgir tehsil of Latur district in Maharashtra.“Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” he says. 

3) A day after Pathan's suspension from the Assembly, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah says: "99% of people agree with the slogan. This debate is irrelevant. Those who do not want to chant this should be asked what is their problem with this slogan. We will convince the 1% people, who do not want to chant it." Asked if he considers Owaisi a traitor for not chanting the slogan, he says: “No one becomes a traitor due to just one thing. We will have to consider all other things and then come to a conclusion."

4) Pitching into the issue, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says: "'Bharat Mata ki Jai' is not merely a slogan. It was a mantra of inspiration to countless freedom fighters during the independence struggle. It is the heartbeat of a billion people today. It is the reiteration of our constitutional obligations as citizens to uphold its primacy.”

5) In a letter to Amit Shah, Aam Aadmi Party minister Kapil Mishra asks: “Does Mehbooba Mufti believe in saying ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’? If not, will the BJP still form a government with her?” 

April, 2016:

1) India’s largest Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, issues a fatwa stating Muslims should not chant the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ as it was against the basic tenets of their religion. The fatwa states that chanting the slogan was against “tauheed”, or the “oneness of Allah”, which forms the core of Islam. The seminary has also argued that the Constitution provides the right to all citizens to practice their own faiths in their daily life.

2) Reacting to the edict, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi says one should often chant ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ with pride. “I feel that opposing it for some reason, is wrong, childish... I will forcefully express my right to raise the chant of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’. Equally forcefully, I will resist attempts to punish someone for not raising the chant,” says Singhvi

3) Congress leader Rashid Alvi says chanting ‘Bharat mataki jai’ in Urdu and Persian meant saying “madre vatan zindabad”. “There is no harm at all in saying 'madre vatan zindabad'. Religions does not come in between,” says Alvi.