Can’t force people to chant nationalist slogan: RSS chief

LUCKNOW, India: Amid the raging controversy over chanting the slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said no one can be forced to say so, NDTV reported.
“The slogan need not be imposed,” Bhagwat said on Monday.
Bhagwat’s remark at an event came days after senior BJP leader L. K. Advani termed the controversy over the slogan “meaningless.”
“We don’t want to win or defeat anyone. We don’t want to impose our ideology and thoughts on anyone,” Bhagwat said.
He said the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP, was striving to raise people who were committed to the cause of creating a great India.
The RSS chief stirred a controversy recently with his remark that the younger generation needed to be taught to hail “Mother India.”
In apparent retaliation, lawmaker from Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi had said he would not chant “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” as he was not obliged to do it under the Constitution and that he would not do so even if a knife was put to his throat. Shiv Sena, BJP and other parties criticized Owaisi over his stand.
Maharashtra Assembly suspended a legislator from Oawais’s party after he refused to chant the slogan, while the Madhya Pradesh Assembly passed a censure motion condemning Owaisi.