PM Modi: Congress Fractured Vande Mataram; Nehru’s Pact with Jinnah

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru while addressing a discussion on Vande Mataram in the Lok Sabha. The PM said that the Congress did tukde tukde of the national song and Jawaharlal Nehru claimed that Vande Mataram could incite Muslims.

As chants of “shame, shame” erupted in Lok Sabha, PM Modi said “some forces carried out vishwas ghaat” (betrayal) of the national song in the last century.

“It is our duty to tell our next generations who did it. Muslim League (pre-Independence) led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in 1937, carried out a drive against Vande Mataram. But the Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru, rather than opposing them, started probing Vande Mataram instead.”

“Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a letter to Subhash Chandra Bose after Jinnah’s opposition to Vande Mataram, stating that he had read the background of Vande Mataram and thought it might provoke and irritate Muslims. He added that they would examine the use of Vande Mataram, and that too in Bankim Chandra’s Bengal,” he said.

The PM also slammed Congress for Emergency and said that the Constitution choked when the national song completed 100 years.

“… When Vande Mataram completed 50 years, India was under British rule. When Vande Mataram completed 100 years, India was in the clutches of Emergency… At that time, the patriots were imprisoned. When the song that inspired our freedom movement, unfortunately, India was witnessing a black period…. 150 years of Vande Mataram is an opportunity to reinstate that pride and that great part of our past… This song inspired us to attain freedom in 1947…”

“Now, at 150 years, it is a good opportunity to restore the glory of ‘Vande Mataram’ which won us freedom in 1947,” the Prime Minister said, praising the song written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in November 1875 and which quickly became a rallying cry for freedom fighters.

The Parliament had set aside 10 hours for a special discussion on Vande Mataram in both Houses as the national song completes 150 years. Priyanka Gandhi Vandra will lead the discussion for the Opposition.

– Ends