Aligarh’s new mayor, Mohammad Furkan, says while he respects the national anthem, he does not remember it completely. During an interaction with media persons after taking over as city mayor, a journalist asked him to recite the national anthem. To which, Furkan said he does not remember it completely, but knows it in bits.
He further said that even though he doesn’t know the National Anthem, he hears it every day, respects it and stands for it. This comes weeks after the BSP corporators in Aligarh took their oath in Urdu which resulted in a scuffle. Furkan is also the same person who had refused to sing the national song. While many media outlets published the story, the story published by The Indian Express has mysteriously vanished. The cache could be found here.
Earlier, in 2017, another BSP leader, Sunita Verma, who is also a mayor in Meerut, allegedly kept sitting while the national song was being played at an official ceremony. Harikant Ahluwalia, the previous mayor, had made singing the national song, while standing, at Meerut Municipality Corporation meetings compulsory.
In the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh civic polls, the BJP won in 14 out of 16 Municipal corporations across the state. The remaining two namely Meerut and Aligarh were won by the BSP.
