New Delhi, March 19: BJP president Amit Shah today asked the party to focus on the JNU thought battle and the debate over chanting "Bharat Mata ki Jai, twinning the issues as central to the discourse on "nationalism".

A trifle defensive over the campaign mounted by the political and ideological opposition against the Narendra Modi government on the charge of curbing free speech and expression, Shah stressed that while freedom of expression allowed leaders, parties and governments to be traduced, "criticism of the country will not be tolerated".

"Anti-national slogans calling for India's destruction and dismemberment were raised on the JNU campus. Rahul Gandhi went there, said nothing on the slogans but tried to justify them as the right to free expression and speech," Shah said on the first day of the two-day BJP national executive here today.

The BJP chief's formulation, separating political entities from the nation, could be "harmonised" with the views of a section of opinion-moulders who hold that while patriotism could not be compromised with, challenges to freedom of thought and expression were indefensible.

Shah underscored the distinction, reminding Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of the Emergency that "banned press freedom and jailed people who opposed it" and the Left, the "Maoists and Stalinists" whose "supporters preach to us democracy".

He claimed that for 14 years, the Congress had unleashed a "campaign of calumny of baseless and scandalous charges against Modi. Yet we did not say anything because it shows our respect for freedom of expression".

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who briefed the media on Shah's address, said the BJP president wondered if the chant "Bharat Mata ki Jai was at all a subject of dispute".

Shah equated the slogan with the concept of "nationalism", saying: "Patently anti-national activities cannot be allowed on the plea of freedom of expression."

Asked if Shah suggested that the Congress and the Left were also "anti-national", Prasad replied: "We did not say they were anti-national, we said they are questioning the BJP's commitment to freedom of expression."

"I have not seen senior CPI, CPM and Congress leaders castigating these slogans. One of them was ' Bharat ke tukde honge hazar, Bharat ki barbadi tak, jung rehega, jung rehega' (India will be broken into a thousand pieces, until India is destroyed, we will wage a war)" Prasad asked.