PM Modi says Congress split Vande Mataram stanzas in line with Muslim League

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the Lok Sabha on Monday (December 8) during the discussion to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, said it was the country's misfortune that the Congress compromised on Vande Mataram and broke it up. He further alleged that in 1937, the Muslim League launched a campaign against Vande Mataram, adding that the then Congress president Jawaharlal Nehru saw it as a threat to his throne.

‘Nehru dissected Vande Mataram’

“Instead of giving a befitting reply to the Muslim League, condemning their campaign and showcasing Congress's resolve for Vande Mataram, Nehru started dissecting Vande Mataram. Nehru wrote to Netaji Subhas, agreeing with what Jinnah was saying and said that Vande Mataram could irritate Muslims because of its background. The Congress then stated that there will be a Congress Working Committee meeting in Bengal on October 26 to analyse Vande Mataram,” said Modi.

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“It was the country's misfortune that the Congress compromised on Vande Mataram and broke it up. The Congress bent its knees before the Muslim League for its politics of Muslim appeasement. Because the Congress bent then to break Vande Mataram, it had to bend again to accept India's Partition in 1947,” he added.

On Gandhi’s remark about Vande Mataram

Elaborating further, the Prime Minister stated that Mahatma Gandhi, in Indian Opinion, published from South Africa, wrote that Vande Mataram is so popular that it has become our national anthem because of its great spirit and its greater melodiousness than the national anthems of other countries.

“ If Vande Mataram, which Gandhi saw as the national anthem, was so great, then why was such injustice done to it in the last century? What was the force that overshadowed Gandhi's views on the song?,” said Modi.

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“Nowhere in the world has there been a song like Vande Mataram that inspired millions to march unitedly. It was a mantra of our independence, our sacrifice, our resilience and our resolve. Even Rabindranath Tagore wrote of Vande Mataram as a uniting force. Even at Veer Savarkar's India House in London, this song used to play all the time. Bipin Chandra Pal started a newspaper called Vande Mataram. When the paper was banned in India, Madame Bhikaji Cama started a paper from Paris called Vande Mataram. Cande Mataram also became a mantra for Swadeshi. Subramanian Bharati translated Vande Mataram into Tamil,” he added.

‘Vande Mataram war cry for freedom’

The Prime Minister said that Vande Mataram was not just an inspiration to fight the British, but a war cry to free Mother India.

“From the time of the Vedas, it has been said that this land is our mother and we are its children. This is the spirit that drove Lord Ram, too. Vande Mataram was a contemporary take on that philosophy,” he added.