By Smritika Banerjee
On the 150th Anniversary of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’, a discussion in Parliament has sparked a fiery political clash between the ruling BJP-led NDA and Congress. Along with the upcoming West Bengal assembly serving as a central contention point.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s charge that the Modi government deliberately timed the discussion to gain political mileage in West Bengal has intensified the discussion, which is being continued in Rajya Sabha after beginning in Lok Sabha. She claimed that highlighting only two stanzas of the song that was adopted by the Constitution framers was an insult to the freedom fighters.
Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, dismissed this claim in the Rajya Sabha and urged those connecting the discussion to Bengal polls to rethink their perspective. This debate was initiated by Shah claiming Vande Mataram as the song that awakens India’s cultural nationalism. The first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru, was also accused of dividing the poem in 1937, connecting it to the start of India’s partition by Amit Shah.
Priyanka Gandhi’s stance was very smoothly backed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. He challenged Shah’s historical claims, stating the decision of using only the first two stanzas was collectively taken by important personalities of the freedom movement like Subhas Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, and Rabindranath Tagore, along with Nehru.
He also firmly attacked the BJP’s ideological predecessors, stating that they allegedly worked for the British. At the same time, Congress leaders, on the other hand, were chanting Vande Mataram and going to jail during the struggle for freedom. He also accused the government of using the debate as a means to insult Jawaharlal Nehru and to deflect from the issues the country is facing.