Bharat Mata Ki Jai chant: Congress takes dig at BJP

NEW DELHI: Congress today took a dig at BJP over its insistence on the chanting of ' Bharat Mata Ki Jai" as proof of how patriotic one was, wondering how it would label the likes of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh.

"Netaji said Jai Hind, Bhagat Singh said Inqlab Zindabad & Hindustan Zindabad. BJP says except Bharat Mata ki Jai everything else ANTI-NATIONAL?" senior Congress leader Manish Tewari said in a tweet.

Other Congress leaders have earlier said that chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' in public is a matter of choice.

A debate on the issue is raging in the country. AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi had courted controversy when he refused to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', saying it is matter of personal choice and nobody can be forced into uttering it.

In his inaugural address at the party's National Executive meeting yesterday, BJP chief Amit Shah asserted that the party will not tolerate criticism against the country and freedom of expression cannot be an excuse for shouting anti-national slogans.