New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday asserted Vande Mataram is not limited to West Bengal or even India, rebutting Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s charge that the NDA government proposed the parliamentary discussion on the national song owing to West Bengal polls scheduled next year.
Speaking in Rajya Sabha, he said the Opposition wants to belittle the national song by linking the discussions to the West Bengal elections.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, speaking in Lok Sabha Monday, lambasted the BJP-led government, accusing it of coming up with the idea of holding a Parliamentary debate on Vande Mataram keeping next year’s assembly elections in West Bengal in mind.
Without taking her name, Shah responded to the charge during his speech in the Upper House Tuesday.
“As we were discussing the greatness of Vande Mataram, a few members questioned why this topic is being raised in Parliament. So let me answer that. Vande Mataram has always required dedication. It needed dedication when it was first composed, it inspired dedication during the freedom struggle, it remained important when we attained Independence in 1947, and it continues to hold the same importance even today,” he said.
Shah also took on the Gandhis further, saying two members of the family were absent when the discussions took place on 150 years of Vande Mataram in Lok Sabha.
The home minister also held former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru responsible for reducing Vande Mataram to two stanzas on its golden jubilee. His statement led to protests from Congress MPs.
Shah further said the country would not have been partitioned had the Congress not fragmented the national song for the politics of “appeasement”.
“When Vande Mataram was limited (stanzas truncated) after it completed 50 years, that is when the appeasement started. That appeasement led to the partition of the country. Had the Congress not divided Vande Mataram for appeasement, the country would not have been divided,” he said.
“Mere jaise kai logon ka maan-na hai, Congress party ko pasand aaye na aaye, agar Vande Mataram ki tushtikaran ki niti ke tehaht do tukde na karte toh desh ka bantvara nahi hota, aaj desh poora hota,” Shah further said. (Many people like me believe, whether the Congress likes it or not, had it not divided Vande Mataram under a policy of appeasement, India would not have been partitioned. The country would have been intact today.”
On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attacked first PM Nehru, alleging he agreed with Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s opposition to some stanzas in Vande Mataram. Modi accused the Congress of removing those stanzas from the national song for its “politics of appeasement” that eventually led to the “compromise of the Partition of India”.
Also Read: From Bankim’s private musings to a war cry—the many lives of Vande Mataram
‘Not limited to Bengal’
In his speech Tuesday, Union Home Minister Shah said while it is true that the composer of Vande Mataram “Bankim Babu” was from Bengal and the Anand Math had its origin in Bengal, “Vande Mataram was not limited to Bengal or the country”.
“Even today, when our soldiers make the supreme sacrifice on the border, when our police personnel lay down their lives, there is one voice that rises—‘Vande Mataram’.”
He further said Vande Mataram became the rallying cry that helped break the shackles of ‘Maa Bharati’, and the discussion of Vande Mataram in both Houses today will help future generations understand its true importance and glory.
He added that those who are questioning why Vande Mataram is being discussed need to introspect.
Shah said that in 1992, BJP MP Ram Naik advocated singing Vande Mataram again in Parliament through a short duration discussion.
“At that time, the leader of the opposition, Lal Krishna Advani ji, prominently told the Lok Sabha Speaker that the singing of Vande Mataram should take place inside this great House because the Constituent Assembly had accepted it. Then, the Lok Sabha unanimously began the singing of Vande Mataram,” he added.
However, many people who are now with the “INDI Alliance” said they would not sing it, Shah claimed.
“Several leaders of the INDI Alliance, I have a list, had said that they will not sing Vande Mataram,” he said. “I have seen it myself, several members walk out of the House whenever ‘Vande Mataram’ is sung in Parliament.”
Shah said that a list of “INDI Alliance” members who have previously said in Parliament that they will not sing Vande Mataram will be tabled in the House.
He also slammed the Opposition, and said the government never abstains from Parliamentary debates, and is ready to discuss any issue in Rajya Sabha. The debate on Vande Mataram is not politically motivated, he said.
The Union minister claimed that former prime minister Indira Gandhi jailed everyone who chanted Vande Mataram during the Emergency.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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