Maharashtra Assembly suspends AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan for refusing to say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra assembly has suspended an MLA for not saying ' Bharat Mata ki Jai'. The motion to suspend Waris Pathan belonging to Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, who represents one of the assembly constituencies of Mumbai, was unanimously passed with the Opposition Congress and NCP supporting the move.

Pathan will not be able to attend the Maharashtra assembly till the end of the budget session. There were also calls to suspend his party colleague Imtiaz Jaleel for the same. However, the resolution to suspend Jaleel was not introduced on Wednesday.

The commotion began when Jaleel was speaking on the motion of thanks to the governor’s address. Referring to governor C Vidyasagar Rao’s statement about the state government’s resolve to build memorials for Babasaheb Ambedkar and other leaders, Jaleel said that taxpayer’s money should not be used for memorials.

This saw Shiv Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil asking him whether he was disrespecting ‘great leaders’ followed by why his partymen would not say ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’.

At this juncture Pathan said they would not say Bharat Mata Ki Jai. "We are ready to say Jai Hind...