(Photo) Courtesy : The Week
New Delhi, 20 August— A fierce battle about ‘Who is true nationalist’ between the ruling RSS- BJP and the principal opposition party the Congress is being currently fought in the people’s court as the ruling establishment is desperately trying to project its main political adversary in bad light over whether epic national song Vande Mataram should be sung in its entirety or only the first two stanzas as the convention hitherto.
While Union Home Minister Amit Shah today criticised the Congress Working Committee for its “anti-national decision” to continue following the tradition established through a 1937 CWC decision, wherein only the first two stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ are recited till the Modi government enacted a law, the Congress Working Committee expressed its resolve to follow the convention by passing a resolution to this effect.
The Modi government, on backfoot in the background of continuing youth protests across the country on the state of education, is seeking to turn the table through the issue of Vande Mataram but its strategy has many pitfalls as the raging debate in the public has brought into open many dimensions about the role of the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS during the freedom struggle into open. Neither the RSS nor the Hindu Mahasabha had sung Vande Mataram either during the freedom movement or for many decades thereafter.
“Yesterday, Congress Working Committee took an anti-national decision. Following their 1937 resolution, Congress decided to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram. I want to remind the nation that in 1937, by dividing Vande Mataram for the appeasement of Muslims, the Congress laid the foundation for the partition of the country. Today, the Narendra Modi govt has corrected the Congress’ mistake to strengthen national unity and also given it a legal framework. Congress’s decision confirms its policy of appeasement,” agencies quoted Amit Shah as saying.
Shah said that Congress has “not only insulted this creation of Bankim Babu but also lakhs of people who laid down their lives for the freedom of the country.”
“Today, the Congress party is implementing its 1937 resolution but rejecting a law made by the Parliament. I am surprised that the Congress party, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, is once again taking forward appeasement politics. The country has once made the mistake of letting Vande Mataram be divided into two parts, and we have faced its consequences. Now, the country should come together against this decision of the Congress party and say that their politics of appeasement will not work anymore. BJP condemns this decision of the Congress party,” he added.
The decision by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) assumed significance as the central government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently made the complete rendition of the national song part of official protocol.
Hitting back, the Congress leaders asserted that the party was resolute in its stand to “follow the path shown by freedom fighters” regarding rendition of only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram.
This comes a day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolved to continue following a tradition established through a 1937 CWC decision, under which only the first two stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ are recited at Congress events. The decision assumes significance as the Centre has recently made the complete rendition of the national song part of official protocol.
Speaking to IANS, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said: “I am very happy that yesterday the Congress decided in a firm manner that we will sing only the first two verses of ‘Vande Mataram’. Because in 1937, I believe, it was decided on the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore that we would sing only the first two stanzas. And today, we are following the same path again.”
Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan also said: “The CWC is the highest and most respected institution for all of us. We have to follow the views and decisions of great leaders such as Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Rajendra Prasad. These great leaders collectively took important decisions, and we must respect and follow what they decided.”
Congress leader Udit Raj echoed, saying: “The CWC’s decision reflects the party’s standpoint and we have to abide by it.”
Party leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal reiterated that the CWC has decided to follow the path shown by those who fought for India’s independence, “including Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad”.
“While these people (freedom fighters) were deciding to publicly sing only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram, the ancestors of the BJP, those linked to the ‘Hindu Mahasabha’ were forging alliances with the Muslim League to form the government in three places within the country,” he alleged
He further claimed: “When Mahatma Gandhi was leading the ‘Quit India movement’, at that time, Jana Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee was forging an alliance with the Muslim League and wrote letters to the British that the alliance was ready to rise against the (Gandhi’s) movement.
“Now we will have to learn patriotism from these people (BJP), who didn’t fight the freedom movement?” he remarked.
Sappal stated that the Congress had adopted Vande Mataram in 1896 itself, and when its leaders were jailed during the freedom movement, slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ were raised against the British.
“Now the same slogan is being used by the BJP to divide the country,” he alleged.
It is a million dollar question whether people at large are able to see through the BJP’s game to fool them or they are once again misled?
Veteran Journalist and Political Commentator
