After BJP workers’ ‘har har Modi, ghar ghar Modi’ slogan came in for sharp criticism from Dwarka Peeth Sankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati as well as political leaders, prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday asked his supporters not to use the slogan.
“Some enthusiastic supporters have been using the slogan ‘har har Modi’. I respect their enthusiasm, but request them not to use this slogan in the future,” he tweeted.
The Sankaracharya had complained to the RSS about what he termed “the worship for an individual”.
In an unrelated development, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid,who is contesting from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, requested the Election Commission to take note of the slogan for its religious slant. The Gujarat-based Sankaracharya is seen close to the Congress and its leaders like Digvijay Singh and is opposed to the Sangh Parivar. Modi is also contesting from the Vadodara seat in his home state.
“After learning about it (slogan), I called up Bhagwat yesterday (Saturday) and asked him to stop such chanting, which is an insult to Lord Shiva. I told him that converting ‘har har Mahadev’ into ‘har har Modi’ must be stopped. Instead of worshipping God, it is an attempt to worship a particular human being and is against the Hindu religion,” Swaroopanand was quoted as saying by a news agency report from Ahmedabad.
The seer said he was flooded with phone calls from devotees, who are deeply hurt by such slogan-chanting. “In his reply, Bhagwat claimed that the RSS is always against human-worshiping. He also claimed that such chanting is done by over-enthusiastic supporters, and it is not an intentional effort by the BJP,” said Swaroopanand.
However, he remains unconvinced by Bhagwat’s explanation. “If the RSS doesn’t endorse human-worshipping then why it has not done anything to stop such activities? Why Modi is not opposing it from the very first moment,” he asked.
Meanwhile in Farrukhabad, Khurshid strongly opposed the slogan and said he had requested the Election Commission to take cognisance of it. “We respect democracy but God is above it...I request the EC to take cognisance of the slogan used by the BJP,” Khurshid said.
However, brushing aside a top seer’s objection to the slogan, Bihar BJP said it was within its democratic right to coin a slogan to woo voters.
“There is no valid reason for anybody to object to the popular slogan ‘Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi’ which is aimed at wooing all households in the larger goal to make Narendra Modi the next Prime Minister of the country,” senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.