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'Kaun baithayega?': Rajnath Singh loses cool at opposition during Vande Matram debate in Lok Sabha
During the debate on the national song’s 150th anniversary, some opposition MPs interrupted the defence minister’s speech, asking him to stop and sit down.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh lost his cool at opposition MPs while participating in the debate on 'Vande Mataram' in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
During the debate on the national song’s 150th anniversary, some opposition MPs interrupted the defence minister’s speech, asking him to stop and sit down. Singh became enraged.
"Kaun baithanewala hai? Kaun baithayega?" (Who is going to make me sit?). "Kya baat kar rahe ho...baith! Yeh himmat hogayi?" (What are you even saying? Sit down! How dare you?)” he said angrily.
Many BJP leaders joined the defence minister and started shouting at the opposition, asking them how they dared to ask Singh to sit down.
Rajnath Singh then turned to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, asking him to intervene. Birla gestured to the Opposition MPs to remain calm.
What did Rajnath Singh say on Vande Mataram?
Rajnath Singh slammed the Congress in his speech for "fragmentation" of the national song 'Vande Mataram' due to its "appeasement politics" that started in the days of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
"Restoring the glory of Vande Mataram is the need of the hour and also a demand of morality. Justice that should have been done to 'Vande Mataram' did not happen, and unequal treatment was given to the national anthem and the national song," he said.
He claimed that "injustice to Vande Mataram was not an isolated incident, but a beginning to the appeasement politics by Congress", adding that it was not just an injustice to a song but to the people of independent India.
According to the defence minister, the time had come for an unbiased evaluation of Vande Mataram and asserted that the entire song and the book, Anand Math, were never "anti-Islam," but reflected the popular sentiments against the Nawab of Bengal and British imperialism.
"Now is the time for an unbiased evaluation of Vande Mataram and its history. Everyone has heard the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, but many are not familiar with the rest. Most parts of the original version have been forgotten, and those stanzas depict the essence of India," he said.
