Ahmedabad: Four Gujarat educational institutions run by a trust headed by a BJP leader have made it mandatory for students to write ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ in their application forms to secure admission.

The move is likely to fuel the raging debate on nationalism that has led to a confrontation between the RSS-led right-wing organisations and several sections including the Muslim community and political opposition.

The three institutions including a college are located in Amreli city–around 250 km Ahmedabad–in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, reported Hindustan Times.

BJP leader Dilip Sanghani, who heads the Shree Patel Vidhyarthi Ashram Trust, said on Monday the move was aimed at instilling nationalism in the student community.

The institutes – MV Patel Kanya Vidhyalay, TP Mehta and MT Gandhi Girls’ High School, Patel Vidhyarthi Ashram, and DM Patel Physiotherapy College – collectively have 5,000 students.

The new academic session in Gujarat starts in June.

“The decision has been taken to instill nationalism in students at a young age at a time when we are witnessing anti-national sloganeering in campuses,” said Sanghani.

An event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, where anti-national slogans were allegedly shouted in February, had sparked the debate on patriotism and turned into a bigger political battle.

The BJP leader said that the century-old trust was founded by freedom fighter Mohan Virji Patel and that legacy should be carried forward.

Sanghani was earlier mired in a controversy over a Rs 200-crore scam involving fishing contracts when he was the state agriculture minister.

State education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, who was attending a BJP state executive meet, couldn’t be contacted for his comments.

The opposition Congress was quick to criticise the move.

“Till 2012, the TP Mehta and MT Gandhi Girls’ High School was known as Municipal Kanya School and was run by the Amreli municipality before its management was handed over to the trust. It is still functioning from the government building. This is nothing but the murder of the Constitution by the BJP leader,” said Amreli MLA Paresh Dhanani.

Several leaders of the ruling BJP and affiliated organisations have said that shouting the slogan – which translates to ‘hail, mother India’ – was a proof of patriotism and nationalism.

Yoga guru Ramdev added fire to the issue by declaring on Sunday that if there were no law in the country he would behead all those who refuse to shout the slogan.