New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) The Congress leaders on Thursday asserted that the party was resolute in its stand to “follow the path shown by freedom fighters” regarding rendition of only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram.
This comes a day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolved to continue following a tradition established through a 1937 CWC decision, under which only the first two stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ are recited at Congress events. The decision assumes significance as the Centre has recently made the complete rendition of the national song part of official protocol.
Speaking to IANS, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said: “I am very happy that yesterday the Congress decided in a firm manner that we will sing only the first two verses of ‘Vande Mataram’. Because in 1937, I believe, it was decided on the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore that we would sing only the first two stanzas. And today, we are following the same path again.”
Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan also said: “The CWC is the highest and most respected institution for all of us. We have to follow the views and decisions of great leaders such as Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Rajendra Prasad. These great leaders collectively took important decisions, and we must respect and follow what they decided.”
Congress leader Udit Raj echoed, saying: “The CWC’s decision reflects the party’s standpoint and we have to abide by it.”
Party leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal reiterated that the CWC has decided to follow the path shown by those who fought for India’s independence, “including Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad”.
“While these people (freedom fighters) were deciding to publicly sing only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram, the ancestors of the BJP, those linked to the ‘Hindu Mahasabha’ were forging alliances with the Muslim League to form the government in three places within the country,” he alleged
He further claimed: “When Mahatma Gandhi was leading the ‘Quit India movement’, at that time, Jana Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee was forging an alliance with the Muslim League and wrote letters to the British that the alliance was ready to rise against the (Gandhi’s) movement.
“Now we will have to learn patriotism from these people (BJP), who didn’t fight the freedom movement?” he remarked.
Sappal stated that the Congress had adopted Vande Mataram in 1896 itself, and when its leaders were jailed during the freedom movement, slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ were raised against the British.
“Now the same slogan is being used by the BJP to divide the country,” he alleged.
He asserted that such a thing won’t be allowed by the Congress party as the slogan is meant to unite the country.
–IANS
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