NEW DELHI: Congress today termed the controversy over chanting of "Bharat Mata ki jai" as "complementary hate mongering" by AIMIM and BJP to further their "agenda of polarisation".
"AIMIM and BJP, which feed upon each other's divisive and polarising agendas, have often used these slogans to create nonexistent fault lines between communities," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.
He said be it the Owaisi brothers -- Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi of AIMIM -- or Giriraj Singh and Sakshi Maharaj of BJP or SP's Azam Khan or BSP's Shafiq-ur-Rehman Burq, "they do complementary hate mongering to further the agenda of polarisation".
"Be it a public exhortation to not say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' or calls for non-Modi voters to be sent to Pakistan, people pushing such thoughts... singularly with the aim of spreading propaganda that suits their political purpose," he said.
To drive home his point, the Congress leader said be it in the elections of Maharashtra, Bangalore Municipal Elections or Bihar, the "tacit and symbiotic inter-dependability" between BJP and AIMIM is there for everyone to see.
Singhvi said 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', 'Jai Hind' or 'Vande Mataram' are not verses emanating from any scriptures or rule book or statute manual.
"These are slogans that emanated out of our national conscience during the freedom struggle and are articulation of our intrinsic feeling towards India - the Motherland, Madar-e-Watan, Matrabhoomi," he said.
He said these are "long standing expressions of our commitment to the concept of India as a nation and resonate voluntarily sans any coercion in the heart and mind of every Indian".
His remarks came on a day when the Maharashtra Assembly suspended an AIMIM MLA till the end of the budget session for refusing to chant 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.