Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his “anti-national” remark against the Congress for deciding to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram, questioning whether BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had sung its full version.
Sibal also asked whether BJP leaders who did not sing the complete version of the national song were “anti-national”.
“Amit Shah on: CWC decision on two-stanza Vande Mataram. Calls it ‘anti-national'. My question: Did: BJP in private or official functions sing all stanzas since 1950? Modiji as Gujarat CM? PM Vajpayee?" the Independent MP asked in a post on X.
“You anti-national then? Exposing your vote-bank politics!” Sibal said.
The exchange came amid an escalating political row over the Congress Working Committee’s decision to sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at its gatherings.
Shah on Thursday accused the Congress of taking an “anti-national” position and alleged that the decision was aimed at vote-bank appeasement and was in defiance of the law.
The Congress hit back, with senior leader Jairam Ramesh calling BJP leaders “fraudulent nationalists”.
Defending the party’s decision, Ramesh said the 1937 resolution recommending that only the first two stanzas be sung at national gatherings reflected the considered position of several prominent leaders of the freedom movement.
(With inputs from PTI)