Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused the BJP and the Election Commission of targeting voters through the Special Summary Revision (SSR) process in Uttar Pradesh. Speaking to reporters, Yadav said, “The people who wanted to sing Vande Mataram in the session had never sung it before Independence. They did not like the tricolor.” He further alleged, “The names of more than 3 crore voters will be removed through SIR in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP and the Election Commission are conspiring to remove the names of voters in areas where the BJP lost the elections. The NRC is being implemented through SIR.”
The Samajwadi Party chief’s comments come amid growing political debates over voter list revision and electoral processes in the state. Earlier, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday launched a scathing attack on the BJP during a special discussion in the Lok Sabha on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, accusing the ruling party of “taking over everything and making it its own for political gains”.
Yadav said that the legacy of the song is much broader than the political stories being propagated today, and he emphasized that Vande Mataram is the song of the freedom struggle and the people of India, and not of any political party. “Today, people in the ruling party want to claim everything as their own,” he said. Yadav began his speech by remembering Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, “who gave the nation a song that awakened millions”, but accused the ruling party of “claiming everything”.
Recalling the song’s role in India’s independence movement, Yadav explained how Vande Mataram became a powerful slogan against British rule and energized millions of people. He cited the example of Rabindranath Tagore singing this song during the Kolkata Congress session, which helped it reach the common people and cement its place in the freedom movement.
He reminded the House that the British Government had banned the song between 1905 and 1908 and even jailed school children in Bengal for singing it in classrooms. He further added, “But the revolutionaries did not accept this ban; they kept this song alive in their hearts and minds and continued to carry forward the movement among the masses.”
He argued that Vande Mataram is not meant only to be sung, but to be implemented in life. He said, “Look at the last few decades and understand how much BJP has actually lived it. Today the divisive forces want to break this country. These are the people who had betrayed the country earlier and are doing so now also.”
Yadav also alleged that some people who now talk loudly about nationalism had worked as informers for the British during the freedom struggle. Yadav further said, “How would those who did not join the freedom movement know about celebrating Vande Mataram?”
Challenging the BJP’s historical claims, he said, “Their history will tell why they never sang this song before Independence and why they did not sing it even after Independence.” Meanwhile, the BJP-led NDA government has been allotted three hours to participate in the debate in the Lok Sabha, while a total of 10 hours have been earmarked for the entire discussion, as there will also be a debate in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, December 9. With the beginning of the winter session of Parliament, the 18th The sixth session of the Lok Sabha and the 269th session of the Rajya Sabha began on Monday, December 1. This session will end on December 19.
