Press Statement issued at Chennai by
Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, former president, BJP

Fear of losing Muslim votes is the real reason why the Congress snubbed the National Song

The proposed nation-wide campaign by the BJP on Vande Mataram is commencing from 25th September is aimed at educating the new generation about the back ground of the national song, the patriotic fervor it ignited during freedom movement, exposing the pseudo-secularists and vote bank politics and also to rekindle the spirit on nationalism in the entire country.

The spirit of Vande Mataram is the real answer to terrorism and separatism. The purpose of visiting Shahid stals (birth/death places of the martyrs) is to recall the sacrifices of all those who laid down their lives for the sake of the country and familiarize the youth about the sacrifices made by these great heroes in various parts of the country.

Here is the Tamil adaptation of Vande Mataram by the great poet and freedom fighter, Shri Subramanya Bharati, whose death anniversary happens to be today.
Vande Mataram enbom
Engal manila thayai Vanagudum enbom
Jaathi mathangalai parom
Uyar Janmanththesathil eithinarayin….

(We chant Vande Mataram, and/ pay obeisance to Mother Land/ We see no caste or communal barriers/ All born in this sacred land are high-born.)

The Congress party’s attempts to escape from the heat generated by its ignominious conduct over the centenary of Vande Mataram are going from bad to bizarre.

The party’s general secretary Shri Janardan Dwivedi statement that the UPA government committed an error in choosing September 7 for celebration of the centenary of Vande Mataram just goes to show how callous and irresponsible is its attitude towards something as sacred as the National Song.

First of all, facts must be noted. It was a national commemoration committee, headed not by the HRD minister but by the Prime Minister himself, which decided September 7 to be the centenary of adoption of Vande Mataram as a National Song at an AICC session in Varanasi in 1906. So if an error has been committed, it is not for the Congress spokesman to clarify but for the Prime Minister to do so. It is also incumbent on the Prime Minister to tell the nation which is the correct date.

But the real issue is not about the date. As soon as a well-orchestrated campaign against Vande Mataram was launched by some Muslim fundamentalist organizations and Marxist intellectuals, both the Congress party and the UPA government developed cold feet. After all, it was a decision of the UPA government (and not of the BJP) to celebrate the centenary of the National Song. However, in the face of this viciously communal campaign, which projected Vande Mataram as a “Hindu Song” and not a National Song as decided by the Constituent Assembly itself, the Congress leadership felt that Vande Mataram was a political “hot potato” that should not be touched. Else, it would lose Muslim votes! Hence, the Congress party has abandoned its duty to defend the sanctity of the National Song at the altar of vote-bank politics.

This explains why both the Congress president and the Prime Minister stayed away from singing Vande Mataram on September 7. Here are three bizarre responses from Congress leaders to explain away the Congress President’s absence:

The BJP would like to know from the Congress Party that what the wrong message the Congress didn’t want to send? If September 7 has no historical importance then why their government and the committee presided by the Prime Minister decided to conclude the centenary on that day. Why did not the Congress remind the Prime Minister that there was nothing significant? Do they want to send a message that the country is having an ignorant PM?

How is that Shri Janardhan Dwivedi is ignorant that Vande Matarm is always sung in all important occasions in all meetings of RSS. Shri also says “those who are making noise about Vande Mataram are people who had nothing to do with the freedom struggle”. Is he talking about leadership of his Party and the Government? The Congress should understand that its cheap criticism on this issue will boomerang on it.

The BJP will launch a nationwide “awareness” campaign to expose the opportunism and ideological bankruptcy of the Congress party, which is today apologetic about defending the sacred symbols of India’s freedom struggle.

The CWC’s decision to celebrate the centenary of the launching of Satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi on September 11 is nothing but a “crude afterthought”.