Kalaburagi, August 22
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday questioned the BJP’s renewed demand for singing the full version of “Vande Mataram”, asking why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Ministers had not done so during their years in office.
Kharge was responding to a BJP resolution condemning the Congress Working Committee’s decision to reaffirm its 1937 position that only the first two stanzas of the song should be sung at party programmes.
Addressing a public meeting in Kalaburagi, where the Kannada edition of a commemorative volume on him was released, Kharge said Modi had served as Gujarat Chief Minister for more than 13 years and completed 12 years as Prime Minister without singing the entire song.
He maintained that the Congress’s position was based on a consensus reached by national leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Rabindranath Tagore.
The Congress Working Committee had decided to sing two of the six stanzas of “Vande Mataram” and one of the five stanzas of “Jana Gana Mana”, a practice followed for nearly nine decades, he said.
Kharge accused the BJP of reviving the controversy at the behest of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to polarise voters and derive electoral benefits. He warned that repeatedly altering established practices surrounding the national anthem and national song whenever governments changed would weaken the respect accorded to them.
The Congress president also rejected the BJP’s criticism of his party’s patriotism, saying the Congress did not require lessons from organisations that, he alleged, had sided with the British during the freedom struggle.
Referring to the expression “Dimaagi Naxal”, Kharge accused the BJP of attempting to portray intellectuals and dissenting voices as terrorists. He warned that young people would strongly resist such efforts to stigmatise critics and suppress opposing views.
