UP Muslims irked by Kalyan order on "Vande Mataram"

LUCKNOW, Jan 1: All primary school students in the State will have to start their day by “worshipping a portrait of Bharat Mata” and reciting “Vande Mataram.” And during roll call, a student will now have to say “Vande Mataram” instead of “Yes, Sir” or “Present, Sir.”The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has expressed outrage at this order, issued last month, by Primary Education Minister Ravindra Shukla. Charging the BJP government with “forcibly imposing the VHP agenda,” the Board has said that Islam prohibits idol worship and, therefore, has asked Muslims across the State not to follow the order.“I know the Government might brand all of us Muslims as traitors after this decision,” says the Board’s legal advisor Zafaryab Jilani. “But we don’t need a certificate for our patriotism from any political party or person.”“Nobody should have any objections to this order which asks them only to hail their mother land,” says Shukla.

He claims it was being done only to “inculcate patriotism among the youth.”However, Shukla, reacting to the Muslims’ outrage, has now said that while reciting Vande Mataram — and saying Vande Mataram during roll call –will be compulsory, the “worship of Bharat Mata” will be “only once or twice a year” since it’s “not feasible every day.”

Incidentally, it was the VHP which a few years ago had raised the slogan: Bharat Varsh main rahna hai to, Vande Mataram kehna hoga. (If you want to live in India, you will have to say Vande Mataram.’)

“It’s common knowledge that no Muslim was ever involved in any espionage case or in the assasination of any leader like Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi,” says Jilani.

Shukla claims he is surprised. “Why are they raising such a brouhaha now while they remained silent when Vande Mataram was made the national song?”The order violates the right to religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution and, therefore, can be challenged in a court of law, says Jilani.

A similar reaction in Mumbai in 1973 had forced the then Mayor to withdraw the order for recitation of Vande Mataram in Municipal Corporation schools.The Board also said it was examining the connotations of “Vande Mataram” in the context of Islamic law. “Until then, we have instructed our students not to follow the order,” says Board vice president Kalbe Sadiq. He said the Board would finalise its strategy after seeing what action the Government takes against Muslim students who do not follow the order.