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Say Vande Mataram, not hello: VHP
TAKING A leaf out of its Jai Sri Ram days, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants to raise the Vande Mataram row to a new level. The Hindutva outfit now plans to greet people with Vande Mataram rather than the customary ?namste? or ?hello?.
TAKING A leaf out of its Jai Sri Ram days, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants to raise the Vande Mataram row to a new level. The Hindutva outfit now plans to greet people with Vande Mataram rather than the customary ‘namste’ or ‘hello’.
Bereft of issues for quite some time, the VHP seems desperate not to let the Vande Mataram row settle down fast. The VHP city unit, as part of its year-long programme, has decided to celebrate the Vande Mataram centenary year by convincing people to say Vande Mataram instead of hello or Jai Sri Ram.
Besides, softening its stand the VHP today said it would not pressurise Muslims to sing the National Song. The outfit, however, wants the Centre to make the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory. The VHP also contested the stand of Muslim clerics that singing Vande Matram was anti-Islam. They said if they could bow before mausoleums, then why not the Bharat Mata.
VHP provincial secretary and coordinator of the Vande Mataram cetenary programme Awadh Bihari Misra said Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s shifting stand on the issue had led to the unwanted controversy. Misra branded those opposed to the singing of Vande Mataram as anti-nationals.
Giving details about its September 7 programme, Misra said efforts were being made to ensure that Vande Mataram was sung on that day at the court compound, industrial houses, markets and educational institutes, etc.
He said students of few selected schools and colleges would form a human chain on that day from the Murrey Company Bridge to Chunniganj and sing the National Song. VHP and Bajrang Dal activists would take out a Vande Mataram awareness procession along the same route.
The VHP also requested colleges and schools to ensure that students sang Vande Mataram outside the college campus.
