Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took a jibe at Congress and accused former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of highlighting Muhamad Ali Jinnah’s opposition to the national song and “pandering to communal concerns,” the Hindustan Times reports.
Initiating the discussion, Prime Minister Modi said that Nehru had once written to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose suggesting that Vande Mataram might “provoke and irritate Muslims,” and therefore its usage should be reconsidered. “This, despite Vande Mataram being born in Bankim Chandra’s Bengal,” he remarked.
The prime minister also created a link between the national song and the emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975, the Hindustan Times further reports. He said that when Vande Mataram completed 100 years, the Constitution was throttled and those who lived for patriotism were put behind bars.”
“The Emergency was a dark chapter in our history. Now we have the opportunity to restore the greatness of Vande Mataram. That opportunity should not be allowed to pass,” Modi said.
“After the 1857 uprising, the British pushed ‘God Save the Queen’ into every household. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay responded with Vande Mataram, and despite the partition of Bengal in 1905, it unified the country,” he said.
“When Vande Mataram celebrated 100 years, the country was entangled in the Emergency… Now, at 150 years, it is our duty to restore its glory,” he added.
The controversy on Vande Mataram resurfaced last month after BJP highlighted the letters Nehru wrote to Bose in 1937.
The controversy resurfaced last month after BJP leaders cited letters Nehru wrote to Bose in 1937, arguing that his stance indicated a willingness to limit the song’s use to avoid communal tensions—a claim the Congress has repeatedly rejected, maintaining that Nehru felt the lyrics were “harmless” and should not be construed as references to goddesses.
