New Delhi, Dec 7 (UNI) Congress MP and eminent scholar Dr Shashi Tharoor today said nationalism was a personal choice for him and not an ideology that could be dictated to him by the establishment. ‘’I am a nationalist not because some government, some minister or the court is telling me to be so,’’ Dr Tharoor said, while answering a question during a discussion on his book, ‘An Era of Darkness; The British Empire in India’. Taking pot shots at the saffron establishment, he stressed that he was a nationalist, but not of the particular kind some people were trying to make all others. He said he would never say ‘’Bharat mata ki jai’’, if he was required to do that as nationalism was all about one’s love for one’s country and it came and was expressed naturally. He narrated an incident, when he boarded a bus full of Indians in a European city. "They soon recognized me and asked me to say something. And the thing that came to my mind was 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. Whereas back in India, I was at a function with the President of the ruling party, in which he asked the gathering to say 'Bharat mata Ki Jai', but I did not oblige him,' Dr Tharoor said. He said the day he would be required to be a nationalist, his heart would rebel against it. Talking of his commitment to India, he said he was born in London, and could have easily acquired British passport, but he did not chose that. The discussion on the book was conducted by Prof Rudrangshu Mukheree, organised by the Jawaharalal Nehru Memorial and Library at the Teenmurti House here. UNI NAZ SHS RJ 2054