Owaisi's comments came against the backdrop of RSS chief's suggestion that the new generation must be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India.

Mumbai: AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has said he will not chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai,' comments that came against the backdrop of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's suggestion that the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India.

"I don't chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat sahab," Owaisi said, at a public rally in Udgir tehsil of Latur district yesterday. "I won't utter that (slogan) even if you put a knife to my throat," Owaisi said, amid loud applause by the crowd.

"Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say: Bharat Mata ki Jai," he said.

On 3 March, Bhagwat had said the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India, comments which came against the backdrop of the row over alleged anti-India sloganeering on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

"Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' (hail mother India).

It should be real, spontaneous and part of all-round development of the youth," the RSS chief had said. Owaisi said he will "continue to support" the family of Ishrat Jahan.

WATCH: Asaduddin Owaisi to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat- Won't say "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" in Latur (Maharashtra) (March 13)https://t.co/nRNtaBfi6z — ANI (@ANI_news) March 14, 2016

Senior Shiv Sena leader and minister Ramdas Kadam said Owaisi should go to Pakistan if he doesn't want to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.

"I have asked Maharashtra government to take action against him," Kadam said.

BJP leader and Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the local administration will examine Owaisi's statement and the government will then take appropriate action.

Ratan Sharda, author and RSS ideologue, accused Owaisi of playing politics on national feelings and asked, "If you say I love my mother then what is the problem."

BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh also accused Owaisi of trying to provoke nationalist sentiments, describing his statement as "highly condemnable".

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said statements like that made by Owaisi should be "completely avoided".

Interestingly, Samajwadi Party MLA in Mumbai Abu Azmi said Owaisi should say 'Bharat Mata ki jai', but added that "parties like BJP and Shiv Sena are indulging in politics over the issue".

PTI