Senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain has asserted that there was "nothing objectionable" in the order of Yogi Adityanath administration making recitation of the national anthem compulsory at madrasas across Uttar Pradesh.
The Bihar minister, who is one of the most prominent Muslim faces of the party associated with Hindutva politics, also claimed that 'Jana Gana Mana' was "sung gladly and readily" at the seminary where he had studied.
"Was the national anthem not being sung at UP madarsas so far? If that is so, I am hugely surprised," exclaimed Hussain when asked by journalists about the UP madarsa board order.
"I have studied at a madarsa myself. There, we used to recite the national anthem gladly and willingly. There can be nothing objectionable in showing reverence for the nation," asserted Hussain.
The order makes it mandatory for students to recite the poem before the commencement of classes.
This has been taken exception to by some lslamic scholars and clerics who claim the wordings of the poem, penned by Rabindra Nath Tagore, went against the grain of their religious tenets.
Recitation of the national anthem, as also the national song 'Vande Mataram' made popular by the novel 'Anandmath' of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay has become a bone of contention between the BJP and those who equate the party's insistence on Hindu supremacism.
During the budget session, the Bihar assembly witnessed many heated exchanges between MLAs of the BJP and AIMIM, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, over the issue.
A few BJP MLAs even expressed the opinion that legislators who were reluctant to recite the national anthem or the national song, deserved disqualification.
