New Delhi [India], August 22 (ANI): Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Saturday targeted the Congress party amid escalating a fresh political war of words over national pride and cultural heritage, accusing it of harbouring a "tukde-tukde" mindset and disrespecting Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's iconic composition, Vande Mataram.
Speaking to ANI, he alleged that the Opposition party has consistently failed to accord due reverence to the song, both during its centenary during the 1975 Emergency and today as the nation approaches 150 years of Vande Mataram.
"Just as the Congress fractured India and undermined the Ideas of India in 1947, they are now attempting to fragment Vande Mataram for political gain. The Congress must shed this divisive, 'tukde-tukde' mentality, and the people must give a befitting reply to this divisive mindset that seeks to tear apart even Vande Mataram," said Yadav.
This comes after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) reaffirmed its long-standing stance that only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram should be officially rendered at party functions.
Yadav argued that dividing the poem into parts compromises its integrity. He contends that a single political party cannot claim ownership over a historic work or "arbitrarily split" it based on political convenience.
"By showing disrespect and contempt for Vande Mataram, the Congress party has sparked a debate over whether it remains alienated from India's culture, heritage, self-respect, Swaraj, and the resolve to build a developed India... Even when Vande Mataram marked its centenary, it failed to receive its due reverence because the country was then in the grip of the Emergency imposed by the Congress. The party had stifled freedom of thought under the guise of pseudo-secularism. And today, when a resolution has been passed to honour Vande Mataram as we approach 150 years of independence, the Congress is opposing it. Sage Bankim Chandra Chatterjee gifted Vande Mataram to India as an idea, a resolve, and an expression of cultural consciousness... A political party cannot claim exclusive rights over such a monumental poetic work, nor can it--driven by a warped mindset--arbitrarily split the composition into two parts," he added.
In 1937, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), with leaders including Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, decided that only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at political events.
The decision was taken to address concerns that the subsequent stanzas, which invoke Hindu deities Durga and Lakshmi as allegories of the nation, were perceived as religiously exclusive and had been objected to by sections of the Muslim community and the Muslim League.
Yadav characterised this decision as a concession rooted in "pseudo-secularism," comparing it to the partition of India in 1947. He argued that by adhering to the two-stanza rule today, Congress continues a legacy of appeasement and ideological division.
Written around 1875 by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and published in his 1882 novel Anandamath, Vande Mataram marked its centenary in 1975.
On January 24, 1950, President Rajendra Prasad declared in the Constituent Assembly that Vande Mataram shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana (the National Anthem), though it holds the status of National Song, not National Anthem. (ANI)
"Congress attempting to fragment Vande Mataram for political gain": Bhupender Yadav hits out over CWC resolution
