'Let's debate Nehru's legacy then': Priyanka defends Congress, attacks PM Modi with ‘two reasons’ jibe
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, in Vande Mataram discussion, says BJP-led government wanted this debate for Bengal election and "chance to abuse freedom fighters”
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday said there need not be any “debate” on the national song, Vande Mataram, and called for a debate “once and for all” on her great-grandfather and India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, whom PM Narendra Modi pointedly criticised yet again in his speech in Parliament earlier in the day.
She said the BJP-led government wanted a debate on Vande Mataram in Parliament for “two reasons” — one being the upcoming election in West Bengal and the second, “yet another opportunity to abuse freedom fighters”.
"By doing this, the government wants to divert the country's attention from the essential issues concerning the public," Priyanka Gandhi said, speaking in Hindi.
Also read | Poll-bound Bengal central in Vande Mataram debate: PM vs Priyanka, row explained
"Vande Mataram has always been dear to us, been sacred to us, and will always remain sacred to us," she said, defending the history of her party and Nehru's legacy.
“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore played the most significant role in the selection and determination of both our national anthem and national song ('Jana Gana Mana', which he wrote),” she said, stressing that in both cases only some parts of longer poems were adopted.
“This was also accepted by the Constituent Assembly. Raising questions on this is not only an insult to the heroes and great personalities of our freedom movement, but also an insult to the entire Constituent Assembly,” she argued.
“Have the people in power in the government today become so arrogant that they have started considering themselves greater than great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra Prasad?” she added.
Earlier, PM Modi said the Congress and Jahwarlal Nehru had “partitioned” Vande Mataram — written by the Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s — when it decided in a 1937 meeting that only the first two stanzas would be sung.
The subsequent four stanzas carry direct references to Hindu goddesses and paint a strong religious imagery. The Constituent Assembly after India's independence also adopted these two stanzas as the national song.
Priyanka Gandhi quoted a number of letters between Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose on Vande Matram, about how certain stanzas were bring deemed “not inclusive” by Muslims and some “communalists”, hence the decision to adopt the first two, which speak of the motherland in more general terms. She said this would be the correct "chronology" of how the adoption came about.
"Since you keep talking about Nehru, let's do one thing then. Let's assign a time for a discussion, list out all the insults against him — debate it and let's close the chapter for once and all," she said.
“After that, let’s talk about today’s issues, price rise and unemployment,” she added.
"You (BJP) are for the elections, we are for the country. No matter how many elections we lose, we will sit here and keep fighting you and your ideology. We will keep fighting for our country. You cannot stop us," Priyanka Gandhi said, when taunted by some ruling party MPs about the recent loss in Bihar.
She also accused PM of deliberately overlooking the contributions of the Congress. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers good speeches, but he is weak when it comes to facts. The way Modi ji presents facts before the public is his art. But I am a representative of the people — I am not an artist," she remarked.
"PM Modi said that in 1896, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore sang this song for the first time in a convention, but he did not tell which session it was. Was it a session of the Hindu Mahasabha or RSS? Why was he hesitant to say that it was Congress session?" she asked.
“In every session of the Congress, Vande Mataram is sung collectively,” she stressed. “By making this great mantra of the nation's soul controversial, the BJP is committing a sin,” she said, speaking against the idea of “debating” it. "Congress party will not be part of this sin. The national song Vande Mataram has always been dear to us, sacred to us, and will always remain sacred to us," she said.
Earlier, PM Modi opened the discussion and recalled the British colonial regime's divide-and-rule politics versus Vande Mataram: “When they divided Bengal in 1905, the song stood like a rock.”
“They (British regime) used Bengal as their laboratory. Even they knew that Bengal's intellectual capability gave direction, strength, and inspiration to the country… They believed that if Bengal was divided, the country would be divided too."
On Vande Mataram not being adopted in full, PM Modi accused the Congress, particularly Jawaharlal Nehru, of “bowing” to Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah's contention that the song could “irritate" Muslims.
