Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore’s comments on Vande Mataram, in which she said that only its first two stanzas should be sung when the national song is performed in public, have drawn a sharp response from BJP MLA and West Bengal minister Indranil Khan, who said that “we don’t need lessons” from those who insult the national song.
Khan, while speaking to the reporters on Friday, said, “Is it from Sharmila Tagore or the Congress that we have to learn patriotism? The true warriors of the country, who liberated the country, who drew inspiration from Anandamath, with Vande Mataram in their hearts, gave freedom to the country. They gave freedom to all of us from the British. We have to learn from them, not from those who don’t know what freedom is. We don’t have to learn lessons on freedom, independence or patriotism from those who insult the national song.”
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The comments come amid an intensifying political dispute between the BJP and the Congress over the rendition of Vande Mataram.
{{/usCountry}}The comments come amid an intensifying political dispute between the BJP and the Congress over the rendition of Vande Mataram.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress Working Committee has decided that only the first two stanzas will be sung at party programmes, citing its 1937 resolution. Union home minister Amit Shah has strongly criticised the decision.
The row over Vande Mataram began after Parliament cleared a bill making the complete rendition of Vande Mataram part of official government programmes.
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Shah Vande Mataram finally got the respect it deserved
Shah took a swipe at the Congress, on Friday, saying successive governments had not accorded due recognition to Vande Mataram, while asserting that the national song received its rightful place under the Narendra Modi government during this year’s Independence Day celebrations.
“The complete version of Vande Mataram was never sung in India until at the Red Fort during the Independence Day celebrations this year, where the song was bestowed with the dignity it deserves. It gives me solace that the nation has finally recognised the song in the 150th year of its creation by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay,” he said.
“This immortal composition by Bankim Babu not only gave momentum to our freedom movement but also offered us a goal of what an independent India should be like. By penning the song and the novel Anandamath, he underscored the need for an independent India to tread the path of cultural nationalism,” he said.