Congress move to split Vande Mataram led to Partition, claims Amit Shah

Initiating the debate on ‘The 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram’ in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Shah took a veiled dig at Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who had claimed in the Lower House on Monday that the debate on Vande Mataram had been timed with the upcoming West Bengal elections in mind.

“Some people are trying to belittle the glorification of Vande Mataram by linking it to the upcoming elections in West Bengal. Vande Mataram was not restricted to Bengal...Wherever in the world there were lovers of freedom, Vande Mataram was on their lips, even in secret meetings. Even today, when a soldier on the border or a cop on internal security makes the supreme sacrifice of life, the mantra on their lips is Vande Mataram,” said Shah, taking oblique swipes at Gandhis, the Congress’ first family -- for being absent during the Vande Mataram debate in the Lok Sabha yesterday.

Related news: Vande Mataram debate a bid to distract public from real issues, alleges Opposition

In the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Shah extended the attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched on JL Nehru in Lok Sabha yesterday, accusing the first PM of truncating the national song to two stanzas in order to appease the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Shah repeated the charge today, saying, “If the leader of the then main political party had not split Vande Mataram and began a politics of appeasement, the partition of the country would not have happened,” said Shah, attacking Nehru, under whose presidency the Congress Working Committee adopted two stanzas of Vande Mataram in its October 1937 Calcutta session. The rest, with references to Hindu deities, were dropped.

Shah also said when the golden jubilee of Vande Mataram was due, Nehru split the national song; while during the 100th year of Vande Mataram, patriots who sung the song were jailed as then PM Indira Gandhi had clamped the Emergency.

The Home Minister said the insult of Vande Mataram ran in the veins of Congress leadership and slammed the opposition for speaking of the national song in demeaning terms -- a claim whose authentication Congress chief whip in RS Jairam Ramesh demanded.

Shah later submitted a letter to the RS chairman authenticating his charges.

The Home Minister further said that the discussion, glorification, and celebration of Vande Mataram taking place in both Houses of Parliament will help India’s children, adolescents, youth and future generations to understand its significance. He said in 1992, LK Advani as Leader of Opposition, urged Lok Sabha Speaker to resume Vande Mataram's singing in the House. That's how the singing resumed, he said.

Shah said when Indian culture was ravaged by Islamic and British invasions, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya reestablished cultural nationalism by composing Vande Mataram."Even today, Vande Mataram remains the most powerful rallying cry of freedom, culture, and patriotism," said Shah.