New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday accused Congress leader Sonia Gandhi of objecting to the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram at the party's Independence Day event, even as the opposition party denied the charge.
The Congress asserted that there was no attempt to stop the singing of the full version of the national song and Gandhi was only asking for a chair for party chief Mallikarjun Kharge as he was standing for a while.
Sharing video footage of the Congress's event on X, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh said, "Mother, son and national president (of the Congress) seem to be upset by the rendering of full Vande Mataram."
Certain mindsets never change from pre 1947 to post 1947, the senior BJP leader added.
BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, "The scene that has come to light today on Independence Day is utterly shameful. Sonia Gandhi's objection during the rendition of India's national song, 'Vande Mataram', and her questioning of Congress workers as to why it was being played exposes the Congress party's mindset."
Agarwal said Vande Mataram is not merely a song, but a historic symbol of India's freedom struggle, national consciousness and patriotism.
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"Is this the same Congress that lays claim to the legacy of the nation's freedom struggle?" he asked.
Agarwal alleged that the Congress's attitude towards Vande Mataram reminds people of the party's "Emergency mindset".
"The people of the country have rejected this mindset and will continue to reject it," he said.
The Congress denied that there was any attempt to stop the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram, asserting that Gandhi was only asking for a chair for Kharge.
Asked about the row, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "On October 28, 1937, in Calcutta, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee was held in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Govind Ballabh Pant and C Rajagopalachari, and on the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, they decided that the initial stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at the Congress sessions."
Tagore gave the advice to Nehru and Bose that the first few paragraphs of Vande Mataram should be used, he said.
"We have been singing those lines in every session since them, our Seva Dal sings it, our workers sing it, there is no controversy over that," Ramesh said.
He asserted that the full version of the national song was sung on Saturday.
"This was discussed in Parliament for 16 hours. We put forward our views. I narrated the whole history around it which the prime minister and the home minister did not know. I informed MPs of the context in which the Vande Mataram decision was taken," Ramesh said.
"But today, at Indira Bhawan, the full version was sung, there is no question of a controversy over it," he added.
Asked about the allegation levelled by BJP leaders, Ramesh categorically denied that there was an attempt to stop the singing of the song's full version.
