Big sin, BJP eyeing WB poll via debate: Priyanka

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday questioned the Centre over the need for a discussion on Vande Mataram, and claimed that the BJP remembered the national song only because the West Bengal Assembly elections were nearing and “Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to play an important role in it”.

Participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on 150 years of Vande Mataram, Priyanka accused the BJP of committing a "big sin" by creating a controversy over the issue.

“The government wants to level fresh allegations against those who made sacrifices for the country's freedom. Through this discussion, it wants to divert attention from issues such as unemployment and inflation,” she said.

In her half-an-hour speech, the Congress MP used sarcasm and humour to counter-attack the government's criticism of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, giving a point-by-point response to Modi's allegations against the late leader.

"Whatever complaints you have against Nehru, whatever mistakes you think he made... if you want to hurl abuses, if you want to insult as much as you like, please make a list of that too... 999 insults, 9,999 insults... make a list, and then we will fix a time.

"Just like we debated for 10 hours today on Vande Mataram, in the same way, we will ask the Speaker, we will fix a time--10 hours, 20 hours, 40 hours, however many hours it takes for your complaint to be fully addressed. Let's close the chapter for once and all. After that, let's talk about today's issues--price rise and unemployment," she said amid protests from treasury benches.

Priyanka accused Modi of deliberately overlooking the contributions of the Congress. "You (BJP) are for the elections, we are for the country. No matter how many elections we lose, we will sit here and keep fighting you and your ideology. We will keep fighting for our country. You cannot stop us," Priyanka said when taunted by some ruling party MPs about the recent loss in Bihar.

"Prime Minister Modi delivers good speeches, but he is weak when it comes to facts. The way Modi ji presents facts before the public is his art. But I am a representative of the people--I am not an artist," she remarked.

"Vande Mataram has always been dear to us, been sacred to us and will always remain sacred to us," she said, defending the history of her party and Nehru's legacy.

“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore played the most significant role in the selection and determination of both our national anthem and national song ('Jana Gana Mana', which he wrote),” she said, stressing that in both cases only some parts of longer poems were adopted.

“This was also accepted by the Constituent Assembly. Raising questions on this is not only an insult to the heroes and great personalities of our freedom movement, but also an insult to the entire Constituent Assembly.

“Have the people in the government today become so arrogant that they have started considering themselves greater than personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Dr Rajendra Prasad?” she sought to know.