Minister Rawat hints at Vande Mataram in schools, colleges

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 7

Uttarakhand Minister of State for Higher Education (independent charge) Dr Dhan Singh Rawat is now mulling making mandatory daily singing of Vande Mataram in universities and colleges of the state.

Barely a week after he issued diktat directing all universities for compulsory daily hosting of the Tricolour in their campuses for which he was even identified as Tiranga Mantri, Dr Dhan Singh Rawat has now announced the singing of the national song compulsory soon in colleges and universities across the state.

Dr Rawat said if one wanted to stay in Uttarakhand, he would have to sing Vande Mataram (Uttarakhand main rehna hoga, Vande Mataram kehna hoga).

Srinagar Garhwal BJP MP and former RSS paracharak, Dr Dhan Singh, who was an entrant to the newly set up Trivendra Singh Rawat ministry in Uttarakhand has shot into the limelight for some of his uncanny announcements.

After taking over, the minister’s first major decision was directing universities for installing a 100-foot-high national flag within their campuses and ensuring daily hosting of the national flag. Now, the new announcement of making daily singing of Vande Mataram compulsory has sent all in tizzy. In one of his recent programmes at a college in Roorkie in Haridwar district of the state, Dr Rawat said there was nothing wrong in singing Vande Mataram, which after all was a national song of the country. “I don’t understand why there is no much fuss about it. Singing of Vande Mataram is not a crime. After all, it is our national song,” Dr Rawat told The Tribune. 

Dr Rawat said he was firm in making compulsory the singing of Vande Mataram from the next session in colleges and universities.

Describing the minister’s announcement as an obscure, former head of Department of Social Science, Dayanand Brijendra Saraswati College, KS Randhawa said forced patriotism was not wise. 

“None is against the hosting of the national flag or singing of the national song. Unfurling it on a 100-foot-tall pole on a daily basis and now compulsory singing of the national song, would sanctity of national flag or even song be maintained. The minister needs to answer it,” Dr Randhawa observed.