NEW DELHI: The BJP has continued its attack on Congress leader Sonia Gandhi after a video clip has gone viral, allegedly showing her asking for the playing of Vande Mataram to be stopped at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day.
Taking to X on Sunday, BJP IT chief Amit Malviya said, "Perhaps Sonia Gandhi will never fully understand the profound Indianness of Vande Mataram. But she must understand why India has embraced it; because it reflects our civilisational ethos, our history, our collective memory and, ultimately, who we are".
Taking a dig at the Congress, Malviya, who tagged the video clip showing Sonia Gandhi asking for what the BJP alleged was Vande Mataram to be stopped, said, "This single video has stripped away the carefully cultivated veneer of congeniality and exposed something far more troubling".
He further said, "The impulse to disrupt Vande Mataram, a song that stirred generations of freedom fighters and became one of the most powerful expressions of India’s national awakening, will not sit well with Indians".
Describing Vande Mataram as an emotion of nation, Malviya asserted, "Vande Mataram is an emotion. It is the voice of a civilisation awakening to its own strength. It stirred the hearts of revolutionaries, gave courage to those who stood up to colonial rule, and became inseparably woven into India’s freedom struggle".
In the same post, Malviya further wrote, "When its each words are sung, they evoke not just the land, but the rivers, fields, soil and spirit of Bharat. It carries the memory of sacrifice and the unmistakable yearning for freedom. Few songs possess the power to turn patriotism from an idea into an emotion felt deep within the soul".
In an apparent reference to the Congress, he also said, "You can debate politics. You can disagree over ideology. But treating a song that has stirred the patriotic imagination of generations with anything less than reverence is a different matter altogether".
In another post, Malviya alleged, "For the first time, the entire ‘Vande Mataram’ was sung at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day. After the initial stanzas of Vande Mataram were sung, Sonia Gandhi became agitated and asked for the rendition to be stopped rather than played in full. Rahul Gandhi too appeared to signal that it should end".
He further added, "They were told to let it continue. The message was clear; the complete National Song is now to be respected under the new legal framework, and intentional obstruction or disturbance can invite serious consequences. They eventually fell in line, and Vande Mataram was sung in full".
Criticising the Congress further, Malviya alleged, "For decades, the Gandhi's and the Congress party have displayed an uneasy relationship with the idea of a culturally confident, civilisationally rooted India. That discomfort stood exposed, ironically, on Independence Day".