Lucknow, Aug 20 (PTI) The BJP on Thursday accused the Congress of pandering to vote-bank politics on its stance on Vande Mataram, while the opposition parties questioned the BJP and RSS’s record on patriotism.
The Congress Working Committee on Wednesday decided to adhere to a 1937 resolution of the party’s highest decision-making body under which only two stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at Congress events.
The decision came after the BJP accused Congress leaders of insulting the national song by not singing its complete version.
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, addressing a press conference after the over-four-hour CWC meeting, said the party’s position was clear and that it stood by the decision taken by its top leadership in 1937.
In Uttar Pradesh, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya stepped up the BJP’s attack, saying the Congress was stuck with its decades-old decision despite changed circumstances.
“Rassi jal gayi magar bal nahi gaya… This is still the condition of the Gandhi family and the Congress,” Maurya said on X.
“This obstinacy of keeping the National Song incomplete under the pressure of fundamentalists is continuously taking the Congress away from public sentiment,” Maurya said.
The BJP leader alleged that the Congress decision was driven not by ideological principles but by “vote-bank and appeasement politics.” “The country has already paid the terrible price of politics based on religion in the form of Partition, but the Congress is still weighing a symbol of national unity on the scales of religious votes,” he said.
Maurya asked the Congress to clarify why it had reservations to “Maa Durga, Maa Lakshmi and Maa Saraswati” in the song and “for whom” it was refusing to sing the remaining stanzas.
He said the Congress’s stand exposed what he described as its “accidental Hindu” mindset and “pseudo-secularism.” “The Congress should understand that the country has moved far beyond the narrow politics of appeasement and vote banks. Across the country, Vande Mataram will not remain incomplete but will reverberate with all its six stanzas,” Maurya asserted.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, asked about the issue by reporters on Wednesday, sang a few lines of the song and asked them whether they could sing it.
He claimed that BJP leaders themselves could not sing Vande Mataram and merely nod their heads when it is played.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh defended his party’s position on the issue.
“When the bill related to Vande Mataram was introduced in Parliament, we did not oppose it; rather, we supported it. This is the first point,” Singh told PTI Videos in Lucknow.
He alleged that the BJP had no connection with Vande Mataram and questioned its historical association with the freedom movement.
Singh referred to Syama Prasad Mukherjee’s letter, purportedly to a British governor, calling for the Quit India Movement to be crushed and cited former RSS chief K B Hedgewar’s position on the national flag.
“Has anyone ever seen the tricolour being hoisted at an RSS shakha or at any of its offices?” Singh asked.
He also alleged that the RSS described the National Anthem as an “item of entertainment.” “Nobody needs any certificate of patriotism from the BJP,” Singh said.
Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai said the National Song had always been sung at Congress programmes.
“Vande Mataram is sung in the Congress, but it is not sung at BJP programmes. This has been happening in the Congress since 1937 and it has always been sung,” Rai said at a press conference in Lucknow, with Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam at his flank.
Rai also challenged RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to make the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory at the organisation’s route marches.
“My demand is that Mohan Bhagwat ji should have Vande Mataram played during the RSS’s path sanchalan programmes and the tricolour should be carried,” Rai said.
“These people are carrying out symbolic tricolour marches. Let them make Vande Mataram mandatory at all RSS programmes,” he said.
Rai had made the same demand at a programme in Ballia on Wednesday. PTI KIS VN VN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.