Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that the Congress’s decision to divide Vande Mataram in 1937, as a concession to the Muslim League, initiated appeasement politics that ultimately led to India’s partition. He emphasized the song’s role in cultural nationalism and slammed the opposition for belittling its significance.
NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah asserted Tuesday that had Congress not “divided” Vande Mataram, India would not have been partitioned as its concession to the Muslim League over the song in 1937 started the politics of appeasement, which finally led to the country’s division.Initiating the discussion in Rajya Sabha on Vande Mataram’s 150th anniversary, Shah articulated a muscular concept of cultural nationalism, a founding tenet of BJP and the larger Sangh Parivar, and said Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s composition affirmed the ancient civilisational glory and tradition of worshipping the motherland that suffered from Islamic invasions and British rule.Shah slammed the opposition for belittling Vande Mataram by statements that the discussion was a way to divert attention from pressing issues and gain traction ahead of elections in Bengal.
Partition result of dividing Vande Mataram: Amit Shah
Home minister Amit Shah said it was fitting to pay respect to a song that had stirred patriots for generations and those thinking otherwise needed to revisit their understanding. “For us, India has not just been a geographical entity. We believe it to be a cultural space and treat it as our mother. Lord Ram and Adi Sankara believed in this, and this was what Bankim babu espoused in Vande Mataram,” Shah said in an apparent refutation of critics of the song’s evocation of Goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati as marked idolatry and their refusal to sing it. “We do not fear discussing issues. We do not boycott Parliament. If Parliament is not boycotted and allowed to function, then discussion on all issues will take place. We don’t have anything to hide,” he said, noting that when the song completed its 100th anniversary, the country was in the grip of Emergency. Those singing Vande Mataram were jailed, he said.”Look at the situation of Congress, which used to start its sessions with Vande Mataram. But when the debate started in Lok Sabha, both members of the Gandhi family were missing. The opposition to Vande Mataram is in the blood of Congress leadership, from Jawaharlal Nehru to the present-day Congress brass,” Shah said in a pointed criticism of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.Shah accused many opposition leaders of not according respect to Vande Mataram and submitted a list to the Rajya Sabha chairman after Congress MP Jairam Ramesh asked him to back his claim. A BJP member will never do this, he added. He said it was only after a proposal by BJP MP Ram Naik that Vande Mataram started being sung in Parliament.Shah said the song became the chant of the freedom struggle despite British attempts to ban it. “Even though the (British) govt tried to ban it, and people were beaten and jailed for chanting Vande Mataram, it touched people’s hearts and spread from Kashmir to Kanyakumari,” he said, recalling Aurobindo who called it the “mantra” of India’s awakening.Targeting Congress and Nehru, Shah said the song was divided on its 50th anniversary in 1937. “That is where appeasement politics started. Many like me believe if Vande Mataram was not divided into two for appeasement politics, India would also not have been partitioned,” he added.
