PM to lead LS debate on Vande Mataram today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday initiate the “special discussion on 150 years of Vande Mataram” scheduled in the Lok Sabha with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh expected to cap the 10-hour debate, which is expected to see fireworks and political jousting.

The principal opposition party — the Congress — has also drawn up a list of heavyweights in anticipation of the treasury side’s attacks on first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and his role in the adoption of Vande Mataram, the national song, as we know it today.

From the Congress, deputy leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi is likely to lead the debate with MPs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Singh Hooda, Bimol Akoijam, Praniti Shinde, Prashant Padole, Chamala Reddy and Jyotsana Mahant to participate.

Ahead of the discussion, top government sources today said many important and unknown facets related to Vande Mataram would be revealed to the nation tomorrow.

“PM Modi will speak on the subject and many hitherto unknown facts will stand out for everyone to see,” official sources said. Marking the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram on November 7 this year, PM Modi had questioned the dropping of key stanzas of the national song by the then Congress establishment under Nehru.

“The spirit of Vande Mataram illuminated the nation during the freedom struggle. But in 1937, significant verses of Vande Mataram — its very soul — were removed. The song was fragmented. This division sowed the seeds of the country’s Partition. Today’s generation must understand this history because the same divisive mindset continues to pose a challenge to the nation even today,” Modi had said.

The PM’s veiled reference was to the October 29, 1937, Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolution which adopted only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, dropping the others that contained salutations to Goddess Durga. The developments unfolded under Nehru, the then Congress chief.

The Congress, however, rejected the PM’s allegations and said Nehru simply deferred to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on the issue.

Historical records on the events leading up to the adoption of Vande Mataram as the national song are available in “Vande Mataram”, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya’s work, which speaks of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose being eager that Vande Mataram be adopted by the Congress.

Bhattacharya’s work throws light on how Bose engaged Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru on the matter.

“Nehru had, meanwhile, decided to consult Tagore. Nehru had only recently read ‘Anandmath’. Only six days before the CWC meeting, Nehru wrote about the poem,” says Bhattacharya’s book.

It quotes Nehru as saying: “I have managed to get an English translation of ‘Andnamath’ and I am reading it to get the background of the song. It does seem that this background is likely to irritate Muslims.”

The book also says Nehru found the language of Vande Mataram difficult.

“I do not understand it without the help of a dictionary,” it quotes Nehru.

Bhattacharya’s book ‘Vande Mataram’ further records Tagore’s response to Nehru’s queries about the song.

“To me the spirit of tenderness and devotion expressed in its first portion, the emphasis it gave to the beautiful and beneficent aspects of our motherland made a special appeal, so much so that I found no difficulty in dissociating it from the rest of the poem and from those portions of the book of which it is a part, with all the sentiments of which, brought up as I was in the monotheistic ideals of my father, I could have no sympathy,” Tagore says about Vande Mataram.

Subsequently the CWC on October 29, 1937, adopted the first two stanzas of the song and on January 24, 1950, it was adopted as India’s national song alongside the national anthem.

On the eve of LS debate, the BJP today said Nehru’s role in the adoption of Vande Mataram would be a subject of scrutiny on Monday.

“Three points are noteworthy about Nehru from Bhattacharya’s book: First, he read the English version of ‘Anandmath’ six days before the CWC meeting, even though it was translated into Indian languages at the time. If someone needs a dictionary to understand Vande Mataram, then he is not a legacy maker. Most importantly, Nehru said that Vande Mataram is going to irritate the Muslims. This was Nehru’s false sense of secularism. Tomorrow, when there will be a discussion in Parliament on Vande Mataram, I feel that the legacy of Nehru will again be a subject of debate, discussion and might be exposed,” BJP MP and spokesperson Sambit Patra said on Sunday.

Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee on November 7, 1875.

It was first published in the literary journal Bangadarshan on November 7, 1875. Chatterjee later incorporated the hymn in his immortal work ‘Anandamath’ published in 1882. Tagore set Vande Mataram to music and it became part of the national consciousness.