The ruling BJP and opposition Congress engaged in a war of words in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly on Monday after Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel moved a resolution to commemorate 150 years of Vande Mataram.
The resolution, however, was passed unanimously by the Assembly after debate with the Congress and AAP extending support to it.
While the Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel stated Vande Mataram will never become irrelevant, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi alleged that under the pressure from the Muslim League, the “Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru had divided this immortal song into pieces”.
Reacting to the allegation, Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar accused the BJP of distorting history. Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani stated that those involved in espionage conspiracies and whose names appeared in Epstein files do not have the moral right to chant Vande Mataram.
Moving the resolution celebrating the 150th anniversary of ‘Vande Mataram’ in the Assembly, CM Patel stated that although Vande Mataram was written during the period of slavery, its words and meaning are not confined to that era, they remain relevant and meaningful even today, and therefore it will never become outdated.
The CM said that in 1875, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay composed Vande Mataram and paved the path of freedom with national devotion and national consciousness. “He instilled in the masses the faith that there is no resolve that cannot be fulfilled and no goal that cannot be achieved. He added that every song has its own core message. Vande Mataram is dedicated to ‘Bharat Mata’,” the CM added.
Following the CM, Sanghvi, participating in the discussion, highlighted “the past mistakes made by the Congress”.
“In 1937, under pressure from the Muslim League, Congress and (Jawaharlal) Nehru had divided this immortal song into pieces. The resolution to sing only the first two verses of the song was the culmination of appeasement. This division of the song was the seed of the division of the country. If we had shown firmness at that time, perhaps we would not have lost a part of the united India,” Sanghavi alleged.
Sanghvi emphasised that the singing of the song ‘Vande Mataram’ in Parliament started only after the proposal of the BJP in 1992. This proves that for BJP, patriotism is not a matter of politics but a culture, he said. He added that the celebration of 150 years of the song under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi is a document of the “cultural awakening” of the country.
The Deputy CM, remembering the revolutionaries of Gujarat, said that Madam Bhikhaiji Cama, the daughter of a Parsi family from Navsari, had hoisted the Indian flag in Stuttgart, Germany in 1907 in the presence of the British, on which ‘Vande Mataram’ was inscribed. Apart from this, Maharishi Aurobindo Ghosh also worked to make this song the mantra of the revolution while staying in Vadodara. The ‘Vande Mataram Memorial’ built in Bhujodi, Kutch, is still keeping the history of independence alive, he said.
Concluding, Sanghavi said that ‘Vande Mataram’ is the consciousness of India and those who cannot respect Mother India have no moral right to sit in any sacred House, let alone this House. “This celebration is a true tribute to the unsung martyrs and heroes of the country,” he added.
“In 1875, Bankim Chandra wrote the two stanzas and later expanded four more stanzas in ‘Anandmath’ (novel) in 1882 – not in Hindi but Sanskrit and Bengali. During the 1905 partition of Bengal movement, Rabindranath Tagore started it as a slogan and popularised the song. You may change slogans and narratives, but you cannot erase history,” Parmar said.
He pointed out that in 1946, at a Congress session in Calcutta attended by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, a resolution was passed to accord Vande Mataram the status of national song.
In 1950, he said the Constituent Assembly recognised it as the national song with consensus across leaders, including Jan Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee, he recalled.
“The feeling of patriotism flows in the blood of Indians. There is no need to remind anyone of it,” Parmar said, clarifying that he and
his party supported the chief minister’s resolution.
Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani said. “People of all castes and religions of the country came together and under the leadership of the Congress party, we laid the foundation of the freedom movement. There was a historic slogan of the freedom movement-Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians are four soldiers of Mother India. I pay homage to Abdul Rasool, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore.”
“The right to the slogan of Vande Mataram belongs to every Indian and I am proud that I am a worker and member of that party which used to raise the slogan of Vande Mataram with a smiling face, took bullets and batons of British and even went to jail. I belong to that Congress party. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is the person who was in jail for a total of 11 to 12 years for this country, for the land, for this soil in the freedom movement,” Mevani stated.
The Chief Minister while moving the resolution said that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed the responsibility of serving the nation, a renewed spirit of cultural nationalism and the feeling of Nation First grew stronger among citizens. He gave special respect to the country’s heritage and, through campaigns like ‘Mari Mati Maro Desh’, ‘Har Ghar Swadeshi’, ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’, and the ‘Somnath Swabhiman Parv’, strengthened cultural awareness and revived the spirit of faith and devotion among the people.
“Through Operation Sindoor, India gave a strong and decisive reply to enemy aggression, showcasing the nation’s valour to the world. He added that through the nationwide celebration of 150 years of Vande Mataram, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again given us the opportunity to honour the nation’s great heroes and pay tribute to Bharat Mata.
“Vande Mataram e gaan nathi, aapni aan, baan ane shaan chhe. Azaadi na maha-yagya ni aahuti chhe. Rashtrabhakti ni aahalek chhe. Vikas ni satat dhabakti ananam olakh chhe. Praja jeevan ni darek prabhat ni prabuddh chetna no swar chhe. (Vande Mataram is not just a song; it represents our pride and honour. It symbolises the sacrifice for freedom, the spirit of patriotism, the strong identity of development, and the awakened consciousness of the nation),” the CM added.
