“Our country’s history is much more complicated than…,” Shashi Tharoor echoes Kerala CM’s ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ remark

Reacting to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statements that ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Hind’ were first raised by two Muslims, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said that our country’s history is much more complicated than the black-and-white versions that someone in the “BJP or Hindutva movement would like you to believe”.
The Congress MP echoed similar sentiments and said, “The fact is that we used to be a country where such distinctions did not matter so much, where indeed someone like Netaji Bose had amongst his closest aides people of every faith. He was accompanied by a Muslim Colonel in the fatal plane crash. That is the gentleman who had coined the phrase ‘Jai Hind’ for him.”
He further added that ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ goes back to the Muslim aide of a Hindu Peshwa.
“Earlier, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ goes back to the Muslim aide of a Hindu Peshwa. So, that’s the way our country used to work. We were not always drawing distinctions on the basis of religion,” the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram added.
Tharoor argued against reducing historical events to binary divisions based on religion and urged for a more nuanced understanding of India’s rich and diverse heritage.
“When you think of something like the Battle of Haldighati, who was fighting for the Maharana? Hakim Khan Sur, a Muslim general. Who was fighting for the Mughal Emperor? It was a Rajput King. You have to understand that our history is much more complicated than the black-and-white versions that someone in the BJP or Hindutva movement would like you to believe,” Tharoor said.
When asked about CAA, he said that Muslims are educated like everybody else and they will know what is going on.
“I think it is very clear that they are making a brazen attempt to try and corner the Muslim vote. Muslims are educated like everybody else. They will know what is going on,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, the Kerala Chief Minister claimed that ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Hind’ were first coined by two Muslims, challenging the BJP to renounce the slogans.
“Now, in some programmes we hear some Sangh Parivar leaders asking people to chant ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’. Who coined the slogan Bharat mata ki jai? Was it some Sangh Parivar leader? I don’t know if the Sangh Parivar knows this. His name is Azimullah Khan. I don’t know if they know that he is not a Sangh Parivar leader,” the Kerala CM said.
He said, “He was the Prime Minister to the Maratha Peshwa Nana Saheb in the 19th century. We should know that he coined the term Bharat Mata ki Jai. I don’t know if Sangh Parivar will decide not to chant the slogan since it was framed by a Muslim?”
On March 11, the Central Government notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, which effectively brought into force the controversial CAA of 2019