AIMIM's Owaisi slams RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's 'patriotism basic nature of Hindus' remark

Reacting to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's "patriotism is the basic character of Hindus" statement, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi asked if Gandhi's assassin Godse also comes under the banner. Seemingly irked by the statement by the RSS chief, Owaisi went on to ask if men responsible for Nellie massacre, anti-1984 anti-Sikh & 2002 Gujarat pogroms can be called patriotic just because they are Hindus. The AIMIM chief also said that It's rational to assume that most Indians are patriots regardless of their faith and termed Bhagwat's statement as 'RSS ignorant ideology'.

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Mohan Bhagwat's address

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat while speaking at an event to release the book titled ''Making of a Hindu Patriot: Background of Gandhiji's Hind Swaraj'', authored by JK Bajaj and MD Srinivas, said that Hindus can never be anti-India, citing Mahatma Gandhi. He made the statement while citing Mahatma Gandhi's remarks that his patriotism originates from his dharma.

"Gandhiji had said that his patriotism originates from his dharma," Bhagwat said asserting that dharma does not merely mean religion, it is wider than religion. Releasing the book, Bhagwat said there is no need for speculation that Sangh "is trying to appropriate Gandhiji, that is not the case, no one can appropriate great personalities like him."

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"If someone is Hindu he has to be patriotic, that will be his or her basic character and nature. At times you may have to awaken his or her patriotism but he (Hindu) can never be anti-India. But we have to be conscious of the fact that if one loves his country it doesn't mean land only, it means its people, rivers, culture, traditions and everything," he said. He underlined that Hinduism believes in the existence of unity. "Difference does not mean separatism and Gandhiji has suggested that Hinduism is the religion of all religions," he said.

Meanwhile, in the book, the authors have quoted Gandhi as having written to Leo Tolstoy that, "… my patriotism is patent enough, my love for India is ever-growing but it is derived from my religion and is therefore in no sense exclusive."

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