Baba Ramdev condemns Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s anti-Bihar remark

MATHURA - Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday slammed Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan for stating that migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh would not be welcomed to work in his state.

“The Constitution of India has given right to every citizen of the country to migrate and work fearlessly in any part of country. Anything that is against the Constitution be it fatwa, or anything else is not justified. Every citizen belonging to any religion or language has right to migrate to the entire country. Narrow-mindedness on this issue is not appropriate,” Ramdev told reporters in Mathura.

Ramdev, who participated in the 30th general session of Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, where a resolution endorsing the fatwa on Vande Matram was adopted on Tuesday, said people from all faiths should recite the national song.

“Everybody in the world is aware of my stand on Vande Matarm. All of my daily programmes and assemblies begin and end with Vande Matram. Even Muslim brothers have wrong impression about the word Vande Matram, they are considering it as Hindu ritual. It is not at all appropriate and I hope this will be clarified soon,” he said.

The fatwa asked Muslims not to sing the song as some of the verses are against the tenets of Islam.

Some Muslim groups say singing the song “Vande Mataram” would be against Islam because it had strong connotations of Hindu deity worship as it reveres India as a holy goddess.

Although it was expected to become the national anthem when Indian became independent in 1947, similar objections by Muslims saw another song becoming the anthem. (ANI)