New Delhi : Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his remark that there is a limit to appeasement, Janata Dal (United) leader Pawan Verma on Monday said that the BJP has made noble sentiments of nationalism a joke.
“The entire BJP leadership and the RSS leadership and their affiliated organization have made the noble sentiments of nationalism into a joke by making nationalism equivalent to merely a slogan. A noble slogan which we would happily say but by introducing an element of compulsion in it, hatred in it, of exclusion in it they have reduced nationalism to their level of hatred, violence and exclusion,” Verma told ANI here.
Calling it unfortunate that such a immature demonstration of politics is going on in the country, He said that Fadnavis needs to be condemned by the BJP and the RSS needs to do very serious introspection of what they are doing with the notion and emotion of nationalism.
Fadnavis has clarified that his objection is only with people who are against the slogan of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, after his comment at a rally in Nashik that those unwilling to praise ‘Bharat Mata’ have no right to stay in the country, sparked a controversy.
“We absolutely have no problem if somebody says Jai Hind or Jai Bharat or Jai Hindustan, but all we object about is when someone says, ‘I won’t say Bharat Mata Ki Jai’,” Fadnavis said in a statement, adding, “There is a limit to appeasement too”.
He said the slogan has nothing to do with religion and those opposing it are divisive forces with mala fide interests who wish to create a “rift in the country”. (ANI)