NEW DELHI: As the political row over national song, ‘Vande Mataram escalates, Congress on Friday hit back at PM Narendra Modi saying Rabindranath Tagore had suggested that the first two stanzas of the song be adopted and it was “shameful” of the Prime Minister to accuse the Nobel laureate of harbouring a divisive ideology. The Opposition party also demanded an apology from Modi.
After inaugurating the year-long commemoration of “Vande Mataram” to mark 150 years of the national song, the prime minister said important stanzas of the national song were dropped in 1937, which sowed the seeds of the partition, and asserted that such a “divisive mindset” is still a challenge for the country.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared extracts from Sabyasachi Bhattacharya’s definitive biography of “Vande Mataram”, giving the background of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolution of October 29, 1937 that adopted the song.
“Three days before the meeting, on October 26, 1937, Tagore wrote to (Jawaharlal) Nehru on this issue. It was Gurudev himself who suggested that the first two stanzas of the song be adopted,” Ramesh observed in a post on X.
In another tweet, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge his party has been the proud flagbearer of “Vande Mataram”, which awakened the collective soul of the nation and became the rallying cry for freedom, whereas BJP and RSS have “avoided” the national song despite its universal reverence.
‘No outside dictation’
After religious groups in J&K objected to singing of “Vande Matram” in schools, CM Omar Abdullah on Friday distanced his govt from the row, saying the decision on celebration of its 150th anniversary of in schools in the UT was not taken by the Cabinet and asserted that there should be no outside dictation.