Varanasi: Hitting out at the RSS for “vitiating communal atmosphere in the counrty”, social activist and Arya Samaj scholar Swami Agnivesh on Saturday said that nobody could be forced to say ‘Vande Matram’ or ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.
“You cannot force a person to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ by terrorising him with a gun on his head. Nobody will tolerate such a forced way of patriotism, as was being imposed by the RSS leaders,” he said.
Agnivesh while participating in a discussion on protection of the Constitution (samvidhan ki suraksha) at Saraimeer, Azamgarh said, Muslims of India had proved their patriotism during the struggle for independence whereas RSS which was formed in 1925 and the ‘Sangh Parivar’ leaders claim themselves to be ‘patriots’ has done nothing other than propagating ‘Hindutva’ and there was not a single shread of evidence about its role in the freedom movement.
He said that deliberate incidents of intolerance and religious hatred spread would not only affect the ‘essence’ of the country.
As per News18 reports, Agnivesh also came out in favor of a fatwa issued by an Islamic seminary against chanting the slogans ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.
The fatwa was issued on March 19 and became viral on social media on Thursday evening says that Islam does not allow Idol worship hence Muslims should abstain from saying so.
Deoband seminary has criticized RSS leaders saying it can’t enforce its version of ‘nationalism’ on the people of the country.
The seminary has received thousands of queries on the issue so Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a ‘fatwa’ saying ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’ is not in consonance with Islam and we will not say it, said cleric Ashraf Usmani, who is also the spokesman of Darul Uloom.