Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, August 16, criticised Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over an incident at the party’s Independence Day function in New Delhi, accusing the grand old party of disrespecting Vande Mataram and saying that the people of the country would never forgive what he described as a “sin”.
Addressing a gathering in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh, where he unveiled a statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Shah alleged that Congress had failed to accord Vande Mataram the respect it deserved and had “forgotten” the national song.
Recalling the role of Vande Mataram during the freedom struggle, Shah said thousands of Indians who raised the slogan had faced the gallows, bullets, lathi charges and imprisonment. He alleged that the Congress had subsequently sidelined the song because of “vote-bank politics”.
Shah also accused Sonia Gandhi of asking Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to stop the singing of Vande Mataram at the party headquarters. Referring to the incident, he said the country had witnessed on television how Gandhi objected while the song was being sung.
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Shah invoked legendary Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote Vande Mataram, and said the song was once again being accorded respect after decades. Shah alleged that Sonia Gandhi was unhappy with this.
Shah directly addressed Sonia Gandhi, saying that the country’s 140 crore people were watching and that they would not forgive her for what he described as an insult to Vande Mataram.
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He questioned how anyone could contemplate stopping the song before its completion and said Congress leaders should be ashamed of the incident. He further demanded that, if they had any sense of remorse, they should apologise with folded hands to the memory of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and to the people of India.
BJP had on Saturday accused Sonia Gandhi of objecting to the recitation of the complete version of Vande Mataram at the Congress’s Independence Day programme. The Congress rejected the allegation.
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Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said the party’s position on Vande Mataram dated back to a decision taken by the Congress Working Committee in Kolkata in October 1937. He said the committee, which included Mahatma Gandhi and other senior leaders, had decided that the song would be sung at Congress conventions.
According to Ramesh, Rabindranath Tagore had advised Jawaharlal Nehru that the opening lines of Vande Mataram should be sung. He said those lines had subsequently been used at Congress functions.
Ramesh maintained that the full version of Vande Mataram was in fact sung at the party’s Independence Day event and that there had been no attempt to stop it. He said Sonia Gandhi had only asked for a chair for Kharge because he had been standing for a long time.
