PM tried to rewrite history, Vande Mataram not political tool: Opposition

It was the PM’s habit, he said, to keep referring to the country’s first prime minister and Congress whenever he speaks on any issue. “… No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to put even a single blot on Pandit Nehruji’s contributions,” Gogoi said.

Gogoi claimed it was the Muslim League that wanted to say that the whole Vande Mataram should be boycotted. “Congress leader Maulana Abul Kalam Azad said, ‘I have no problems with Vande Mataram’. That was the difference between Congress and Jinnah. Despite the League putting pressure, a decision was taken in the 1937 Congress session that the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram will be sung at national gatherings,” he said.

SP chief and MP Akhilesh Yadav said Vande Mataram should be followed in spirit, as it is a song which brought people together during the Independence struggle. “Vande Mataram is not to show off, nor is it a political tool. When we listen to them (BJP), they make it sound as if they created the verse.”

He asked how those who did not participate in the freedom struggle could truly understand the song’s meaning. “Today, divisive elements are using Vande Mataram to create divisions. These people are still following the divide and rule policy used by the British,” he said.

He also claimed that “time and again it has been seen that those on the ruling side try to appropriate iconic leaders who never belonged to them”.

“The Opposition is bullied, browbeaten and prevented from raising pressing issues… suddenly, the government finds it so important, so urgent to discuss historical complexities of a song,” TMC MP Mahua Moitra said. “… (Rabindranath) Tagore sang Vande Mataram publicly, he anchored it to the conscience of our nation. It was Bengal’s clarion call, it was no jumla BJP can expropriate before an election.”