‘Can’t have a new Jinnah’: Yogi says singing Vande Mataram will be compulsory in all UP schools, colleges

Citing recent attempts to oppose recitation of the national song, especially by Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, Adityanah said, “Yeh naye Jinnah (Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan) ko paida karne ki sajish ka hissa hai. Humein yaad rakhna hoga ab Bharat ke andar phir se koi Jinnah paida ho na paye. Agar paida hone ka saahas karta hai to isse pehle ki wo Bharat ki akhandata ko chunauti de, usse pehle hi dafan kar ke dena hoga (This is part of a conspiracy to create new Jinnahs. The country cannot allow a second Jinnah to take birth. If attempts are made to revive Jinnah then such attempts should be buried).”

The CM also hit out at the Congress, alleging that its failure to remove Mohammad Ali Jauhar as the party president after he opposed singing Vande Mataram in 1923 led to the division of the country. “Opposition to Vande Mataram is unjustified. In 1923, when Mohammad Ali Jauhar became Congress president, he left the meeting when singing of Vande Mataram started. It is this opposition to Vande Mataram that later led to division of the country,” he claimed.

Mohammad Ali Jauhar was the co-founder of the All-India Muslim League.

Adityanath stated that no individual, caste or religion is bigger than the country. “… While our faith is on one side, if it becomes a hurdle in the unity and harmony of the country, then it would have to be sidelined,” he added.

“We should always remember that Vande Mataram was the song that was sung by every freedom fighter before entering the struggle to free the country and became the mantra for independence. Now… some people are trying to label it as ‘sampradayik (communal)’,” he further said.

राष्ट्रगीत ‘वंदे मातरम्’ का गायन,

उत्तर प्रदेश के हर विद्यालय, हर शिक्षण संस्थान में अनिवार्य करेंगे… pic.twitter.com/eZ07d49tlb

— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) November 10, 2025

Maintaining that there is the need to stop those who are trying to weaken the unity of the country, the Chief Minister said such an attempt is necessary “so that no second Jinnah can take birth to challenge the unity of the country in the future”.

On Sunday, Barq, the SP’s Sambhal MP, had said he has never sung the national song and it cannot be used to question his “deshbhakti (patriotism)”.

“Mere dada… Barq sahab ne hamesha iski mukalafat ki hai… Aur kabhi isko nahi gaaya… Na hi main gaata hun. Is cheez se meri deshbhakti par koi ungli nahi utha sakta (My grandfather, Barq sahab, always opposed it and never sang it. Nor did I ever sing it. But no one can raise a question on my patriotism because of it),” he had said.

The MP had said no one can force Muslims to sing the national song as some words in it are against the preachings of their religion.