New Delhi: The Congress on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of raising the issue of nationalism to cover up the failures of its government.
“The only reason why the bogey of nationalism is being raised, is to cover the inadequacies and the failures of the past 22 months,” Congress leader Manish Tewari told the media here.
“It is ironic as to who is raising the question of nationalism — the political party whose predecessors had apologised to the British imperialists to come out of jail, a party which had no role to play in the national reconstruction of India,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said “nationalism is the country’s strength” and freedom of speech does not permit “destruction of the nation”.
He also said anti- nationalism would not be tolerated at any cost.
Reacting to this, Tewari criticised the BJP leadership for evoking a debate on the use of the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ to express one’s patriotism.
“When Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose said ‘Jai Hind’, or for that matter Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev said ‘Hindustan Zindabad’, or even ‘Inquilab Zindabad’, did that make them less nationalists, than those who say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” Tewari asked.
“Whether it is ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, it is ‘Jai Hind, it is ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’, ‘Hindustan Zindabad’, ‘Vande Mataram’, they are all synonyms of the same emotion,” he said. (ANI)