As the BJP govt judging the patriotism of Indian citizens by the slogan ‘Bharath Mata ki Jai’, here are the facts which BJP govt and the Hindutuva missed.
According to 1986 constitutions, the Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy of Supreme Court rules that, “Our tradition teaches tolerance, our philosophy preaches tolerance, our Constitution practices tolerance,let us not dilute it.”
The Wire reports that all the constitutional experts suggested the ruling party missed the point of Tolerance.
“The BJP resolution took an erroneous position on the Constitution. “I think it is completely wrong,” says Senior advocate Aryama Sundaram.
Making a reference to the one of the Supreme Court case in which few Kerala student refuses to sing National Anthem as they belonged to a religious group known as the Jehova, and they were dismissed from the school.
However they approached the SC taking up the issue, and SC allowed them not to sing the national anthem.
“SC laid down that tolerance runs like a thread through the constitution of India and it said that as long as they did not disrespect the flag or the country, it did not make it in any way disrespect to the flag or the nation”, said Sundaram.
So, in the present context, he said, “if a person does not otherwise disrespect the country but says I will not chant something – not chanting it does not make it a case of disrespect at all. It is open to him to chant what he wants or not chant something, but it is not open for him to disrespect the country. So not chanting something does not amount to an act of disrespect. I cannot agree that not chanting Bharat mata will amount to disrespecting the country under the constitution,” he added.
It is to be noted that, the controversy began after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the younger generation must chant slogans like ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ so that they called as nationalist, and he allegedly asked All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi to chant the same.
On being denied to chant the slogan, the leader are called as anti-nationals and even AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan, was suspended for the entire budget session inside the Maharashtra assembly after he declared that he would say “Jai Hind” (‘Long live India’) but not ‘Bharat mata ki jai’.
According to senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal, “the constitution nowhere requires people to say ‘Bharat mata ki jai, nowhere does it talk about it. The BJP and RSS are giving a very wrong interpretation. The constitution just says ‘India, which is Bharat’. It doesn’t talk of Bharat mata. So, it is not a fundamental duty of every citizen of the nation to say such a slogan.”
“We all love and respect our nation, but we don’t have to carry it on our sleeve,” said Kamini.