Bharat Mata Ki Jai : Is chanting everything else is Anti-National ?

Bharat Mata Ki Jai : Is chanting everything else is Anti-National ?

Bharat Mata Ki Jai – a slogan when chanted, gives a feeling of patriotism and it is your conviction that the country is superior to all others because you were born in it. But a row has started over the chanting of slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Ja”. In a democratic country like India, it does not mean that anybody can say anything. But a fresh twist has been added to the already heated up debate over chanting of slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ by the political leaders.

A debate started in the wake up of the row kicked up by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi with the remark that he would not say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ instead was ready to chant ‘Jai Hind’

On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party says except everything for not chanting only Bharat Mata Ki Jai, is anti-national a.nd one who doesn’t say it, not a patriot and can be tried for sedition

The Yog Guru, Baba Ram Dev has also said that the Centre should bring an amendment in law to promote the chanting of the slogan so that everyone says it.

Even though it is not written in the Constitution that one should say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ but there should be no problem in chanting it. At the same, the real freedom fighters who sacrificed their everything for the cause of freedom of India, had never put such a condition like chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ as a proof of ‘Love & Respect’ for the nation.

If we go back, Subhash Chander Bose popularly called Netaji said Jai Hind, Bhagat Singh said Inqlab Zindabad and Hindustan Zindabad and now BJP under the influence of RSS insists for Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

Different leaders have different logics for and against this slogan. Recently, radical Sikh leader Simrajit Singh Mann has said that as the Sikhs don’t worship women in any form, the Sikhs cannot chant the slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ – Hail, Mother India). Sikhs should only say ‘Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

Mann - who is a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer known for proponent of the idea of a separate Sikh nation of Khalistan - has further advocated that BJP must know the Sikhs event cannot say ‘Vande Matram’ either and Hindu religious scriptures like the Geeta should not be imposed on people from other religions as has been done in the BJP ruled Haryana. He even passed a resolution under the banner of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) seeking a separate state of Jat-Land by increasing the size of Punjab.

Breaking his silence over the issue, Prime Minister Narendera Modi advocated saying that Bharat Mata ki Jai is not merely a slogan. It was a mantra of inspiration to countless freedom fighters during the independence struggle. It is the heartbeat of a billion people today.

It is an admitted fact that when you say no to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, it puts a big question mark on you as well as the unity in diversity of the nation as the nationalism or patriotism is in expression of humanity. Such patriotic slogan comes from the core of hear only if you are wedded to nationalism and only then the people around you will speak in your favour otherwise a hullabaloo is like to crop up.

The recent example is what happens on 9^th February in the JNU campus. While Kanahiya advocated for freedom from India while within India and chanting of slogans were giving a wrong message. It too had become a national issue as to why the agitation was on this particular day which is directly relevant to the day of sentence to Afzal Guru, for which they have no answer.

If we are living in India, we must speak about the welfare of India, otherwise we have not right to be called an Indian.

Frankly speaking, there should no debate on this issue. No doubt there is a need to taught patriotic slogans to our youths who are the custodian of future of the nation but the controversy over the slogan is meaningless and non-chanting of slogan should not be termed as an offence to try under the sedition charges.

Moreover, the freedom of expression and patriotism do necessarily co-exist but Constitution nowhere gives right for the destruction of the country over the right of expressing dissent and disagreement.

Our Constitution also describes India as Bharat and it is certainly disrespect if one refuses to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai. It is not merely a slogan; rather it is a combination of word of inspiration for those who sacrificed their life during the independence movement of India. As a citizen of India, it becomes our duty, to maintain the primacy of our Constitution.