Cong endorses Arjun's views on 'Vande Mataram'Add to Clippings

Endorsing Union HRD minister Arjun Singh's views, Congress on Monday said the direction to educational institutions on recitation of 'Vande Mataram' in educational institutions was not mandatory but "voluntary in nature" and any community was free to recite it or not.

"Congress party and the country is proud of the national song 'Vande Mataram' which had electrified our freedom fighters and who made umpteen sacrificed....Even then if a community or group feels otherwise, they are free to recite it or not. We agree with the Union Minister Arjun Singh in this regard", Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.

He said Congress party and the country would be celebrating centenary of the song on September 7, 2006 and all institutions across the country would be reciting the song at 11 A.M.

Seeking to quell the controversy over a central directive for the recitation of the song in schools, Singh had said on Sunday while addressing a a minority academic institution in Varanasi that it was not mandatory.

The recitation of the song was aimed at paying tributes to freedom fighters and martyrs, he said.

"The song should not be viewed otherwise," Singh said referring to protests by the Samajwadi Party and some Muslim organisations against the directive.

 

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‘Madrassas too must sing along’

BJP Asks All Its States To Make Vande Mataram Compulsory

The row over Vande Mataram escalated sharply on Monday with BJP directing all states ruled by it to make singing of the national song compulsory in all schools, including madrassas on September 7, the centenary of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s composition.

With several Muslim groups and clerics having already forced a dilution of the Centre’s plans to mark the Vande Mataram centenary as an occasion celebrating “national pride”, BJP’s move is sure to widen the social and political polarisation.

The reaction of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board was swift and strong. Its secretary Kamal Farooqui warned that “singing of the song should come naturally, otherwise it will only create compulsory resistence.” BJP remained unfazed and made it clear that it would also target the ruling party for “backsliding” and indulging in politics of “minority appeasement” over the issue.
Farooqui said: “I am pained to see the attitude of BJP. Using it (Vande Mataram) as a compulsory certificate to prove your patriotism is very unfortunate. This way, no service is being done to the nation or to the song.” He also hinted at the possibility of a “fatwa” being issued opposing the decision to sing Vande Mataram in madrassas.

The trigger for the confrontation came from HRD minister Arjun Singh’s directive to organise singing of Vande Mataram across the country on September 7. He was forced subsequently to clarify that the singing would be voluntary after Delhi’s Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari set off a chain of Muslim protests.

DISCORDANT NOTE

BJP says singing of the national song compulsory in all schools, including madrassas, on Sept 7 to mark Vande Mataram centenary

Muslim law board secy says fatwa may be issued to prevent madrassa students from singing the song

Arjun Singh had directed singing of Vande Mataram across the country on Sept 7

BJP ups ‘Vande’ ante

With Congress on the retreat, having given up plans for celebrating the national song, ‘Vande Matram’, in face of mounting opposition, BJP has stepped in to appropriate the issue and challenge its rival for combat on a “nationalist” pitch.

BJP has upped the ante well aware of Congress’s sensitivity to the Muslim vote. The opposition party is looking to make the most of Congress having hastily abandoned plans to play to nationalist pride over the song.

It hopes to tap into its own home turf of “nationalist-Hindutva” issues to corner Congress after HRD minister Arjun Singh revising the government position by writing to chief ministers “clarifying” that there was no compulsion of singing the song.

Stepping up its Vande Mataram campaign, especially in context of upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, BJP on Monday clearly indicated that singing of the national song would be made compulsory at schools in the party-ruled states. ‘‘All school children and teachers are expected to sing the national song,’’ BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters. BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh has already ordered all educational institutions, including madrassas, that singing of the national song is a must on September 7.
Wary of directly joining issue with BJP, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, ‘‘In 1947 Congress working committee had made it clear that first two stanzas of the song should be sung and they were sung at the constituent assembly chaired by B R Ambedkar.”

While holding that there was “nothing objectionable about the song which inspired thousands of freedom fighters to make sacrifices for the country,’’ Singhvi added that ‘‘there should be no compulsion in singing it.

The AIMPLB has taken the position that Vande Mataram was “controversial right from the time it was written which was why a distinction was made between it and the national anthem in the constituent assembly.

Farooqui pointed out that during the NDA tenure, a similar move initiated by UP government, was withdrawn after the intervention of former PM A B Vajpayee.

Source - TOI

 

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Arjun bungles on Vande Mataram date

As the war cry and politics over Vande Mataram reaches a feverish pitch, the truth is that the idea of celebrating its centenary on September 7 this year is fake. It’s not backed by facts.

Clearly, the HRD ministry and minister Arjun Singh have bungled. No historian was consulted by them before fixing September 7 as the centenary day. They merely acted on a note forwarded by the culture ministry drawing attention to the 'centenary’.

Arjun Singh’s office lost little time dashing off a letter to state governments requesting them to make school/madrassa children sing the national song on September 7. The result: a full-blown controversy with distinct communal overtones.

Top historians are today questioning HRD ministry’s wisdom. It was first pointed out to TOI by noted modern India historian Sumit Sarkar (see today’s edit page article on page 30). He questions the authenticity of the centenary date as espoused by the government.

Writes Sarkar, "The surprising thing is that nothing relevant to the song happened on September 7, 1906 (or, 1905). The Congress did not take any decision then about its national status, for the simple reason that it always met in the last week of December."

He adds: "Clearly the HRD ministry had been wrongly advised." How did the government settle on the date? Ministry sources now say the idea of commemorating the song’s centenary in schools belonged to Shashi Bhushan, former Congress MP and ex-chairman of the party’s freedom fighters cell.