UP Governor’s latest after ‘crow’ analogy: ‘Those not chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai are dumb people’

“In 1950, Jana Gana Mana was made the National Anthem… there had been a tradition of singing the National Song (Vande Mataram) and the Anthem in Parliament… very few people are raking up such issues… Everyone has the freedom to speak in a democracy,” he said. Besides having academic knowledge, students should have knowledge of the country, he added.

Read | Voices against ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ akin to cawing of crows: UP Governor Ram Naik

When contacted, Naik told The Indian Express: “My point is that those opposing ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ are in small numbers… they are in minority. We know who they are and they should be better ignored.”

“While both Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana were approved in 1950, I had raised the issue again in the Lok Sabha in 1992. The highest body in the country decided that both should be given equal respect,” he added.

Asked about the comparison he made with “dumb people”, Naik said: “I was just making a reference that there are some dumb people who cannot sing. So, it is better to ignore them.”

Last week, during a programme in Lucknow, Naik had labelled those opposing ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogan as “crows” whose “shrieking sound of chaen chaen (cawing)” should be “ignored”. His remark comes days after Darul Uloom Deoband issued a “fatwa” against reciting the slogan by Muslims.

Meanwhile, Naik said he has written a letter to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in connection with the use of alleged unparliamentary remarks by senior minister Azam Khan against him.

“I have written a letter to the chief minister with reference to the unparliamentary comments of the parliamentary affairs minister Azam Khan… Akhilesh Yadav is presently on a foreign trip. I will talk to him once he comes back,” Naik told mediapersons in Pratapgarh.

In a CD handed over by the Assembly Speaker in connection with the matter, out of the 60 sentences of Khan, 20 have “unparliamentary comments”, although the Speaker says there is nothing undignified in it, the Governor said, adding he is set to meet the Speaker on April 9.

Khan has been engaged in a war of words with Naik for quite some time, with the minister accusing the Governor of being a “karsevak” and “communally vitiating” the atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh at the “behest” of the Modi government at the Centre. In a stinging remark in the Assembly, Khan had accused the Governor of stalling several bills by not giving his assent and alleged it was giving an impression he was working under the “influence of a party”.

[with PTI inputs]