‘Vande Mataram gave power and inspiration to the entire country’: Top quotes from PM Modi’s speech in Lok Sabha today

# When ‘Vande Mataram’ completed 100 years, the nation was chained by the Emergency. At that time, the Constitution was throttled, and those who lived and died for patriotism were pushed behind prison bars.

# The Emergency was a dark chapter in our history. Now we have the opportunity to restore the greatness of ‘Vande Mataram’. And I believe this opportunity should not be allowed to pass.

# The mantra of ‘Vande Mataram’ gave power and inspiration to the entire country during the freedom struggle.

# It is a matter of pride for us that we are witnessing the historic occasion of ‘Vande Mataram’ completing 150 years.

# When we say Vande Mataram it reminds us of Ved Kaal, it says this land is my mother and I am a son of this land

# ‘Vande Mataram’ was written at a time when British rulers were trying to take their anthem, ‘God Save the Queen’, to every household.

# Bankim da wrote Vande Mataram at a time when it had become fashionable to look down upon India

# Vande Mataram not just a mantra for political freedom; it was a sacred war cry to rid Bharatmata of vestiges of colonialism.

# We are sitting here because lakhs chanted ‘Vande Mataram’ and fought for independence.

# The mantra energised and inspired India’s freedom movement and showed the path of courage and determination.

# The British understood that it was difficult for them to control India after 1857. They knew that their plans to divide India and make people fight each other would be hard to execute, so they opted for divide and rule, making Bengal their experimental centre. Those were the days when Bengal’s intellectual power guided the country.

# British were forced to ban Vande Mataram; they brought in laws to prevent printing and propagation of the poem.

# We should take pride that nowhere in the history of the world has there been a song or poetry that inspired crores of people for centuries and motivated them to sacrifice for a cause. The entire world must know that we had such people even in the time of slavery. We should take pride, and then the world will start to believe.

# Mahatma Gandhi wrote in 1905 that Vande Mataram has become so popular that it has emerged as national anthem

# If Vande Mataram was so popular, why was injustice meted out to it, why was it betrayed in the last century.