Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said that nobody has the right to judge anyone’s patriotism, not even those who think they are running the country.
Speaking here at a book launch, Bhagwat said patriotism doesn’t have an existence of its own. “For it we may mortally perish or just not exist. Patriotism doesn't have an ego of its own,” he said.
The statement comes just days after another controversial remark by the RSS chief at Viraat Hindu Sammelan at Betul in MP earlier this week. At that event, Bhagwat said that every person born in India is a Hindu.
While praising the book, ‘Bharat Ki Khoj Mein Mere Paanch Saal’ (My five years of discovering India) - written by a local journalist Vijay Manohar Tiwari, Bhagwat said that everyone should work with honesty, but give a little extra that the country demands today. “Also, journalists should work without bias and place the truth founded on facts before the society,” he said.
The views of RSS sarsanghchalak was starkly different to those of many others within the Sangh Parivar. The Opposition has again accused the ruling BJP-regime at the Centre of attempting to tie the nationalist plank around itself, and connect all decisions made by the government to patriotism.