RSS deflecting attention on real issues by raising nationalism debate: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Shivpuri: A senior Congress leader on Sunday accused RSS of diverting attention of people from real issues by "igniting" debates on 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' chanting, days after a senior Sangh functionary said 'Vande Mataram' was the real national anthem if one considered the true meaning.

"Right now, the country's foreign policy is in shambles.

Internal security is in the doldrums and farmers are committing suicide. The government is unresponsive to these burning issues. To divert attention of the people, it is igniting debates on the issues like "Bharat Mata Ki Jai', nationalism and Vande Mataram," Congress party chief whip in Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia said.

Mr Scindia's remarks come days after RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi saying that Vande Mataram is the national anthem in a sense if one considered the true meaning.

"Jana Gana Mana is today our national anthem. It has to be respected. There is no reason why it should evoke any other sentiment.

"But it is the national anthem as decided by the Constitution. If one considers the true meaning, then Vande Mataram is the national anthem," he had said on Apri l at the Deendayal Upadhyay Research Institute in Mumbai.

Mr Scindia also accused the central government of "strangulating democracy".

"It (government) has repeated its act of Arunachal Pradesh in Uttrakhand state. It is like strangulating democracy," he alleged.

The former minister said the health services in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh "are on ventilator and that people have lost their eyesight (in some incidents) due to use of fake medicine".