E-Paper
Do not marginalise national spirit
THE PROTEST against remarks on the recital of Vande Mataram is gathering momentum in the city. Various saffron organisations took out processions on Tuesday, shouted slogans and burnt effigies of Union Minister for Human Resources Arjun Singh, Cabinet Minister AR Antule and Imam Bukhari. They also organised a meeting and said that the national spirit could not be marginalised before the religious spirit.
THE PROTEST against remarks on the recital of Vande Mataram is gathering momentum in the city. Various saffron organisations took out processions on Tuesday, shouted slogans and burnt effigies of Union Minister for Human Resources Arjun Singh, Cabinet Minister AR Antule and Imam Bukhari. They also organised a meeting and said that the national spirit could not be marginalised before the religious spirit.
BJP leader Dhruv Narain demanded to lodge an FIR against the leaders opposing Vande Mataram. He said it was a deep-rooted conspiracy against nationalism.
Activists of Gorakhnath Purvanchal Vikas Manch staged a dharna at the district magistrate’s office and said the attempt by certain political parties to incite controversy over the song was condemnable.
City unit president of the Manch Vishnu Shanker Srivastav, Pawan Yadav and others said vote bank politics had adversely affected the spirit of patriotism and condemned political parties who, they said, were pursuing appeasement policy for a particular class.
They also condemned the Union government for launching DD Urdu news channel and lambasted the State government for not imposing ban on SIMI.
City unit activists of BJP Yuva Morcha burnt an effigy of Union Minister for Minorities AR Antule at the court crossing. Expressing his views on this occasion, city unit president of Morcha, Rahul Srivastav, Dharmveer Sonker, Daya Krishna Gupta, Shravan Pandey and others said that opposition to the National Song was a crime against the nation and should not be pardoned or ignored. They said the government should arrest the leaders who were opposing the song.
They handed over a memorandum to the district officials to be forwarded to the President of India and demanded that recital of the National Song should be made compulsory in every educational institution.
They also stressed the need of strengthening the security agencies to check anti national activities and criticised madrasas and other minorities’ institutions for not introducing the National Song in their colleges.
