The Congress on Thursday escalated its attack on the BJP amid the ongoing row over Vande Mataram, calling its leaders “fraudulent nationalists” and accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of using the controversy to divert attention from their failure to address people’s issues.
The opposition party's attack came after Shah criticised the Congress by saying the party's decision to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram was anti-national and in open defiance of the law.
During a CWC (Congress Working Committee) meeting on Wednesday, some leaders raised the issue of Vande Mataram and party president Mallikarjun Kharge clearly stated the Congress position, senior leader Jairam Ramesh said.
The Congress president read out a resolution passed by the CWC on October 28, 1937 by the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Govind Vallabh Pant and Acharya Narendra Dev, on the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Ramesh said, describing BJP leaders as "fraudulent and fake nationalists".
On January 25, 1950, in the last meeting of the constituent assembly, Rajendra Prasad announced that the national anthem would be Jana Gana Mana and the national song would be Vande Mataram, Ramesh recalled.
The national anthem comprises just one of the five stanzas of Jana Gana Mana, he pointed out.
The Congress president said great leaders such as Gandhi, Patel, Bose, Azad and Pant passed the resolution on the advice of Tagore and for 90 years the party had been singing that part as the national song.
"There can be no two ways that we will abide by the resolution of 1937," Kharge was quoted as saying at the meeting.
Ramesh alleged that during the debate commemorating 150 years of Vande Mataram last year, the BJP tried to create a narrative of "Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore".
"This is politicisation of the issue. This is an emotional issue for the Congress but the home minister is looking to derive political benefit and use this to divert attention from his failures from real issues of the people, including those of the students" he said.
"PM Modi has been tried, he is now tired and should soon retire," Ramesh said.
Earlier, in a statement posted on X, Shah said, "In 1937, for the sake of appeasement, it was the Congress itself that fragmented Vande Mataram into two parts."
"From there, the two-nation theory gained strength, leading to the partition of the country. On the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, the Modi government corrected this historic mistake and gave the full song legal form. But under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, the Congress is once again treading the path of appeasement for the sake of its vote bank," Shah said.
The Congress on Wednesday decided to abide by the 1937 resolution of its highest decision-making body on Vande Mataram, saying only two stanzas of the national song would be sung at all party events.
The Congress decision came after the BJP accused its leaders of insulting Vande Mataram by not singing the full version at party events.
(With inputs from PTI)
