PTI
New Delhi
The row over Vande Mataram intensified on Thursday with Union Home Minister Amit Shah launching a no-holds-barred attack on the Congress, alleging that its decision to sing just two stanzas of Vande Mataram was “anti-national” and aimed at appeasing its vote bank in defiance of the law.
The Congress hit back, with senior party leader Jairam Ramesh calling BJP leaders “fraudulent nationalists” and accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah of politicising the national song to divert attention from the government’s failures on people’s concerns, including those of students.
The war of words followed the Congress Working Committee›s decision on Wednesday to sing only two stanzas of the national song, instead of its full rendition. This widened into a broader Congress-BJP confrontation, with both parties invoking Partition, nationalism and history to justify their positions on how Vande Mataram should be rendered at political events.
Criticising the CWC decision, Shah traced the history of Partition.
and emphasised the consequences the nation suffered following the truncation of Vande Mataram, which he called a «historic mistake».
In a statement posted on X, Shah said the CWC decision to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram instead of the full rendition is not only «anti-national» but also an «open defiance of the law» enacted by Parliament.
«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.
He further said that fragmenting Vande Mataram had already happened once, and the nation suffered the consequences.
