KOZHIKODE: Union minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Saturday lashed out at a section of the audience at a youth conclave for not chanting the “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” slogan despite she repeatedly asked them to do so. A visibly irked Lekhi asked them whether Bharat was not their mother and even suggested a woman, who was reluctant to raise the slogan, to leave the venue.
The conclave was organised by certain right-wing outfits.
Concluding her speech, the senior BJP leader chanted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and asked the audience to repeat it.
As the response from the audience was not as expected, she asked whether Bharat was not their home.
“Is Bharat only my mother or your mother as well? Tell me…Tell me…Is there any doubt? No doubt?…Enthusiasm needs to be expressed,” the Union Minister of State for External Affairs & Culture said.
She repeated the slogan and said that the response from the left side audience was still poor.
Pointing at a woman in the audience, Lekhi said, “the lady in yellow (dress) can stand up. Don’t look on to the sides. This is how I am going to speak to you. I am going to ask you a straight question. Bharat is not your mother?… Why this attitude?”
Lekhi again chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai. The woman was still standing idle, doing nothing.
“I think you should leave the house,” she said.
The minister also made it clear that someone who does not feel proud of the nation and who finds it embarrassing to speak about India, need not be part of the youth conclave.