NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday criticised the Congress over its decision to sing only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram, calling the move “anti-national.”“Yesterday, the Congress Working Committee took an anti-national decision. Following its 1937 resolution, the Congress decided to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram. I want to remind the nation that in 1937, by dividing Vande Mataram for the appeasement of Muslims, the Congress laid the foundation for the partition of the country,” Shah told ANI in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu.He further stated that the Narendra Modi government, on the other hand, had corrected the Congress’ “mistake” and given Vande Mataram a legal framework.“Congress’s decision confirms its policy of appeasement. They have not only insulted this creation of Bankim Babu but also lakhs of people who laid down their lives for the freedom of the country. Today, the Congress party is implementing its 1937 resolution but rejecting a law made by Parliament. I am surprised that the Congress party, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, is once again taking forward appeasement politics,” Shah added, referring to poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, who wrote Vande Mataram.“The country has once made the mistake of letting Vande Mataram be divided into two parts, and we have faced its consequences. Now, the country should come together against this decision of the Congress party and say that their politics of appeasement will not work anymore. BJP condemns this decision of the Congress party,” the home minister remarked.In response, the Congress alleged that the BJP was trying to divert attention from a range of issues.”“They want to divert attention from the genuine issues of paper leaks, theft of donations and Chinese incursion in Arunachal Pradesh. We have been reciting Vande Mataram since 1937, more than 90 years. What is new for us? BJP was not a part of the freedom struggle. Vande Mataram was a part of the freedom struggle; it is emotional for us, but political for them,” Congress national general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said.Shah’s attack on the principal opposition party comes days after Vande Mataram was played for the first time at the Independence Day celebrations. All six stanzas of the national song were played before and after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation from the iconic Red Fort in Delhi.
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At a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, on Wednesday, the Congress resolved to continue singing only the first two stanzas, in line with the 1937 resolution and the position adopted by the Constituent Assembly.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge elaborated on the issue by reading out the 1937 CWC resolution, arguing that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Subhas Chandra Bose had approved singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram on the advice of Rabindranath Tagore.
