On Vande Mataram row in MP, Amit Shah takes a swipe at Rahul Gandhi

The row over Vande Mataram in Madhya Pradesh escalated further today after BJP president Amit Shah waded into it. The controversy erupted after the national song was not sung on the first day of January at the state secretariat on Tuesday.

The BJP questioned the “patriotism” of the Congress for discontinuing the 13-year-old practice.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath said the practice of singing Vande Mataram on the first working day of every month was being discontinued for the time being as the government decided to implement it in a new form.

“We have not taken this decision under any agenda nor are we opposed to singing ‘Vande Mataram’. It is deeply rooted in our hearts and we have sung it from time-to-time. We will start it again but in a different form,” Nath said in a statement.

But this did not satisfy the BJP. Amit Shah deflected the political row in the state to the national politics dragging Rahul Gandhi into the controversy. In a Facebook post, Amit Shah said if Rahul Gandhi approved of the decision of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh to do away with the practice of singing of Vande Mataram.

Calling Madhya Pradesh the “heart of Hindustan”, Amit Shah alleged that the decision of the Kamal Nath government was politics of “appeasement”.

He said, “I want to ask Congress president Rahul Gandhi whether the insult to Vande Mataram is his decision? Rahul Gandhi should clarify his position to the nation on the unfortunate decision of the Congress government.”

Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he and all other BJP MLAs would sing Vande Mataram on the first day of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly session if the Congress-led state government does not restore the practice of singing it at the secretariat.