Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday lashed out at the BJP during the debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram, saying the ruling party’s “ideological predecessors” were working for the British when his party leaders were facing action for fighting the oppressors and chanting Vande Mataram.
“When the non-cooperation movement started in 1921, Congress members were going to jail chanting Vande Mataram… What were you doing? You were working for the British,” Kharge said.
Speaking just after Union Home Minister Amit Shah attacked the Congress, alleging that “politics of appeasement” was behind the decision to use only two stanzas of the poem as the national song, Kharge started his address with the slogan Vande Mataram. He said it was his party that did the work of making Vande Mataram a slogan during the freedom struggle.
“We have always been singing Vande Mataram. But those who did not sing Vande Mataram (then) have also started singing it now. It is the power of Vande Mataram. It is a national festival, not a debate,” he said, accusing BJP leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, of insulting the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Kharge said the decision to use only two stanzas of Vande Mataram was taken collectively by Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Madan Mohan Malaviya, J B Kripalani and Rabindranath Tagore.
“I heard the PM blamed Nehru for the stanzas being removed…” Kharge said. Quoting Tagore, who had said he found “no difficulty” in dissociating the first two stanzas with the rest of the song, Kharge said: “You are insulting all these tall leaders. It was their combined decision. Why do you target Nehruji alone?”
Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi, Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh were also present in the Rajya Sabha during the debate.
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Kharge said there are other significant issues facing the country that need to be debated in Parliament.
“We all say Vande Mataram and bow to this motherland, but in this motherland, the rights of the weaker sections, Dalits, tribals, poor and helpless people are played with every day. Some of the favourite cronies of the government continue to capture key sectors, and the results are visible in airports, ports, power, transport, media and essential services,” he said.
