KOLKATA — As the Union government on Wednesday issued fresh comprehensive guidelines establishing the official protocol for the rendition of India’s national song ‘Vande Mataram’, the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition CPI-M criticised the move.
The leadership of both the Trinamool Congress and the CPI-M has specifically objected to the Union government’s directive that the complete official version of ‘Vande Mataram’, comprising six stanzas and lasting approximately three minutes and 10 seconds, is to be performed or played during major state occasions.
Both parties described this particular provision in the guidelines as yet another attempt at divisive politics.
Trinamool Congress state vice-president in West Bengal Jaiprakash Majumdar said such a directive is not acceptable from a government led by a political party whose leaders, he claimed, never participated in the Indian freedom movement.
“Those who have not spent even a day behind bars in British-ruled India are now giving lectures on patriotism,” Majumdar said.
“In 1937, some parts of this song were accepted as universally acceptable by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, following the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Later, only that portion was accorded the status of the national song. Now the BJP government is trying to distort that history. By exploiting the verses of ‘Vande Mataram’, the BJP is trying to divide society along religious lines. This is a planned conspiracy to destroy the Constitution and the unity of India,” Majumdar added.
Echoing Majumdar, CPI-M central committee member from West Bengal Sujan Chakraborty said the BJP was attempting to create a new narrative around ‘Vande Mataram’ with the intention of diverting attention from pressing issues in the country.
“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore himself discussed the relevance and sentiment of this song. But the current Union government has no right to discuss and distort that history. When the country is reeling under multiple crises at the international level, the Union government is imposing unilateral decisions without regard to the Constitution,” Chakraborty said. — IANS
