Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has challenged the Sangh Parivar to renounce their slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai because it was coined by a Muslim.
“It was Azimullah Khan, a Muslim, who first raised the slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai. The Sangh Parivar followers are not aware of that. Will they be ready to renounce that slogan because it was made by a Muslim?” the Chief Minister said while addressing a rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) organised by the CPI(M) here on Monday.
Azimullah Khan, who was a strategist in the first war of Indian Independence, was credited to have first raised the call for motherland when he used the slogan “Madar-e-watan, Bharat ki Jai” in 1857.
The Chief Minister said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was focusing on Muslims with the objective of turning them into second-class citizens. “The Sangh Parivar views Muslims as a community that should be driven away from the country. They are devising many things in order to achieve that goal,” he said.
Mr. Vijayan also lashed out at the Congress for its “insincere attitude” towards the anti-CAA protests. The Congress had maintained a criminal silence when protests were fuming against the CAA, he said.
The Chief Minister said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had gone abroad at the crucial time of the CAA protests. “The Congress did not take part in the anti-CAA protests with sincerity,” he said.
Annie Raja, V. Vaseef and K.S. Hamza, Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidates in Wayanad, Malappuram and Ponnani respectively, attended the function.
The others who attended the rally included Minister for Sports V. Abdurahiman, veteran CPI(M) leader and former Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty, former Minister for Education K.T. Jaleel, former Assembly Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan, CPI(M) leaders M. Swaraj, Sebastian Paul, Haj Committee chairman C. Mohammed Faizy, and poet Alankode Leelakrishnan.
