Mumbai: A day after Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind adopted a resolution asking Muslims not to recite 'Vande Mataram', Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday slammed it, saying those opposed to the national song should go to Pakistan.
"If you don't want to salute your motherland, then who do you salute? What is the shame in saluting Bharat mata? Those who do not want to salute Bharat mata should go to Pakistan o rBangladesh. There is no place for such traitors in India," Thackeray said.
Vande Mataram unIslamic: Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind
Thackeray said the fact that the decree was adopted in the presence of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram showed that the Centre was engaging in appeasement of the minorities.
"If anti-national fatwas are issued in the presence of the Union home minister then there is no future for this country. It looks like the Centre has a policy of appeasement of Muslims for votes," he said in a statement.
Vande Mataram: No resolution passed before me, PC
Stating that such decrees created tensions between Hindus and Muslims, he asked Shiv Sainiks to put up "Vande Mataram" boards all over Maharashtra.
The Jamiat, one of the largest groups of Muslim clerics in the country, had yesterday endorsed the decree of Darul Uloom seminary at Deoband asking the Muslims not to recite Vande Mataram as it went against the tenets of their faith in monotheism.