NEW DELHI: In the wake of a raging controversy over his earlier remarks on slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday clarified that nobody needed to be forced to chant the same. Instead, efforts should be made to build a great India that is hailed across the globe voluntarily, he stressed.
“We have to create such a great India where people themselves chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. It need not be imposed,” Bhagwat said. His remarks at a Bhartiya Kishan Sangh (BKS) event in Lucknow came days after BJP patriarch LK Advani termed the controversy over the slogan ‘meaningless’.
Bhagwat, speaking after inaugurating the renovated building of the BKS, said, “We (India) have to show the way to the people of the world with our life and deeds. We do not want to win or defeat anyone. We don’t want to impose our ideology and thoughts on anyone. We wish to show them the path because we accept them as our own.”
He said, “We have to show the path to the world through our deeds and create such an India that there is ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ across the world... We don’t want to force anyone. It is not to be imposed.”
He explained that the Sangh was striving to nurture more and more people, committed to the cause of building a great India. Whether it was farmers or people engaged in other occupations for livelihood, everyone contributed something to society, he added.
“Earning maximum wealth with minimum effort can be considered a special ability, but it should not be a motto. Our motto should be that we will work more than we take from the society. We should give more to the society,” Bhagwat said. Terming ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family) as the philosophy and core of Indian culture, he said, “We have to present an example before the entire world.”
The controversy had erupted after Hyderabad MP and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi declared that no one could force him to chant the slogan and he would never say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. Owaisi was responding to an earlier speech of the RSS chief in which he had said that the younger generation needed to be taught to hail Mother India. Owaisi’s response was termed anti-national by the BJP, while other political parties also slammed him. Recently, the Maharashtra Assembly suspended an MLA from Owaisi’s party after he refused to chant the slogan. The BJP had taken up the issue and talked about it in a resolution adopted at its national executive meeting last week.
RSS praises hindu activists in the us
The RSS on Monday accused Leftist scholars of attempting to replace ‘India’ with ‘South Asia’ in textbooks in California and hailed efforts by Hindu activists for thwarting their bid to “undermine the country’s glorious identity”. Following protests from some Hindus, the California Education Department decided not to go ahead with some of the suggested changes such as replacing ‘India’ with ‘South Asia’ in state textbooks.