Jaipur: The BJP on Sunday stepped up its attack over the alleged insult to the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ during the Independence Day programme at the Congress headquarters, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding that Sonia Gandhi apologise to the nation and revered author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay for the “sin”.
Sumitro Chatterjee, a BJP MLA and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra, wrote to Gandhi, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, demanding an “unconditional apology over the alleged repeated attempts to stop the singing of the full version” of Vande Mataram at the AICC headquarters on Saturday.
Local BJP leaders also lodged a complaint against Gandhi at Urva police station in Karnataka’s Mangaluru. Police told PTI that they have called for legal advice on the matter and no FIR has been filed.
The Congress, which has refuted the allegations, claimed that Shah and the BJP were trying to divert attention from real issues and “the colossal failures of his and his Sahib’s”.
The BJP alleged that the “opposition” to Vande Mataram by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi points towards a mindset of a “dimagi Naxal ecosystem”.
Shah alleged that the Congress had forgotten ‘Vande Mataram’ due to vote-bank politics, while West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the incident had deeply offended people in his state, where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is revered as “Sahitya Samrat”.
Adhikari also demanded an unconditional apology from Gandhi and warned that failure to do so could lead to widespread protests.
The BJP’s youth wing held protests in Kolkata, Lucknow and other cities. Manipur BJP also held a demonstration in front of the Congress Bhavan in Imphal.
Addressing a public meeting in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, Shah said after 80 years of Independence, ‘Vande Mataram’ was sung at the Red Fort and all other places where flag hoisting was held.
“Thousands of people faced bullets and lathis and were jailed for singing ‘Vande Mataram’,” Shah said, referring to the use of the revolutionary slogan during the freedom struggle.
He alleged that during the Independence Day programme at the Congress headquarters, Sonia Gandhi had asked the party president to stop the song midway.
“We all saw it on television,” Shah said. “Sonia ji, 140 crore are watching you. The people of the country will never forgive you for your sin… If there is any shame left, you should fold your hands and apologise to Bankim Babu’s immortal spirit and the people,” he said.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said the opposition to Vande Mataram by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi on Independence Day points towards a mindset of a “dimagi Naxal ecosystem”.
“Can any patriot, can any Indian who believes in the Constitution of India, respects the Tricolour of India, respects India’s freedom fighters and believes in India’s sovereignty and integrity, ever get angry at the invocation of Vande Mataram on Independence Day?” he said.
The “dimagi Naxal” reference came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address to the nation, in which he warned against “dimagi Naxals” and urged people to identify and isolate them.
The Congress has asserted that there was no attempt to stop the singing of the full version, while maintaining that in 1937, in Calcutta, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee decided that the initial stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at the Congress sessions.
However, Sumitro Chatterjee. a fifth-generation direct descendant of Bankim Chandra, said the incident had deeply hurt the sentiments of the people of West Bengal, and appealed to Gandhi to introspect and tender an unconditional apology to all countrymen, particularly the people of West Bengal, without any conditions.
Asserting that “Vande Mataram” was not the property of any one political party but the country’s collective memory, Bankim Chandra’s eternal legacy and a sacred national symbol earned through the blood and sacrifice of martyrs, the BJP MLA from Naihati said respecting the song was tantamount to respecting the history of India’s freedom struggle.
“I believe that senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, whoever was involved in the insult, should apologise to the country. I hope they soon acknowledge their mistake and apologise to the nation,” Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said. Several other BJP leaders echoed the view.
Separately, Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar alleged that the Congress-led UDF government “deliberately” decided against singing Vande Mataram at state functions on Independence Day and warned of “political and legal consequences”.
The CPI(M) and CPI in Kerala, on the other hand, criticised the Congress for the singing of the national song in full at its party headquarters in New Delhi and in other states ruled by it. They claimed that Vande Mataram was not sung in Kerala due to the strong stand taken against it by the opposition LDF.
“Leaving behind its legacy of secular democracy, the INC party is now unashamedly embracing the Hindutva ideology of the RSS. The full version of Vande Mataram was sung at Independence Day functions, including at the AICC headquarters and in Congress-ruled states, despite there being no legal obligation to do so,” Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said on Saturday.
Earlier on Sunday, addressing a press conference here, Chandrasekhar said Vande Mataram was sung in Congress-ruled Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, but not in Kerala.
Senior DMK leader EVKS Elangovan said that Sonia Gandhi was right in “objecting” to the rendition of the full song as her stand aligns with the Constituent Assembly’s resolution that only certain portions of the song be sung.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said that the BJP was trying to divert attention from real issues facing the country. Asked about the full version of Vande Mataram being sung at the AICC office despite the Congress having objected to it, the Alappuzha MP said it was “not an issue” and described it as “a matter of communication”.
“The Congress party has a clear stance on this. Vande Mataram came into being after consultations with Mahatma Gandhi, involving Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore,” he said and alleged that the BJP was raising the Vande Mataram issue with a divisive agenda.
“We are people who respect Vande Mataram. We equally respect Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem. If they are talking about respecting the nation, first ask them to reclaim the land in Arunachal Pradesh. Our own land is being taken away, despite all the claims made by a person with a 56-inch chest,” he said.
“Not a single word is spoken about it. This is the real controversy,” he said.
