The controversy surrounding Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s alleged objection to the singing of the entire Vande Mataram song during the party’s Independence day celebrations snowballed into a full-blown political feud on Sunday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staging protests across the country and registering complaints against the senior opposition leader.
“As Chief Minister, I feel that insulting Vande Mataram is an insult to Bankim Chandra himself. On Sunday, Union home minister Amit Shah said the Vande Mataram song was sung at the Red Fort and all other places where flag hoisting was held after 80 years of Independence.
The party said Sonia was only asking for a chair for Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge as he was standing for a while. “Mother, son and national president (of the Congress) seem to be upset by the rendering of full Vande Mataram,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site. He also said the Congress government in Kerala crossed all limits by completely removing Vande Mataram from the Independence Day celebrations. In a letter to the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, the MLA from Naihati in West Bengal said the incident had deeply hurt the sentiments of the people of the eastern state, and appealed to her to introspect. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari also said the incident had deeply offended the people of the state, where Bankim Chandra is revered as “Sahitya Samrat”. He accused the Congress leadership of trying to explain away the episode and said video footage would establish what happened. I strongly condemn this,” he said. Congress’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said when lathis rained down for chanting “Vande Mataram”, it was the Congress that had sounded the bugle of freedom through this song. “At that time, people associated with the Sangh either fled with their tails tucked between their legs or wagged their tails to please their British masters,” he said.
Earlier reporting noted: Addressing a public gathering in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh district, Shah accused the Congress of disrespecting the national song and demanded that the party apologise for allegedly stopping its rendition midway. Earlier reporting noted: Referring to visuals from the Congress headquarters, Shah alleged that senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had asked the party president to stop the song while it was being sung. The Congress has denied the allegation that attempts were made by Sonia to stop the singing of the full version of the national song at the AICC headquarters on Saturday. The controversy broke out on Saturday when BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh shared a video of the Congress’s event on X. Earlier reporting noted: ‘Their shamelessness’, Amit Shah slams Congress over ‘Vande Mataram’ row Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday launched a sharp attack on the Congress over the controversy surrounding the rendition of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ at the Congress headquarters during the Independence Day celebrations on Saturday.
