Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said Vande Mataram is not just a song but the soul of India’s freedom struggle, and further said that the country’s national anthem became the first and biggest victim of Congress’s appeasement politics.
Participating in a discussion organized to commemorate 150 years of ‘Vande Mataram’ in the state assembly during the winter session, Chief Minister Yogi said, “Vande Mataram became the first and biggest victim of Congress’s appeasement politics. Was limiting Vande Mataram to two stanzas a result of religious compulsion or a planned conspiracy against the national consciousness?”
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister claimed that Mohammad Ali Jinnah had objected to Vande Mataram and that Congress had decided to remove parts of the song as a “symbol of goodwill” to please the founder of Pakistan in 1937.
As long as Jinnah was in Congress, Vande Mataram was not a decisive issue of controversy. Soon after leaving the Congress, Jinnah made it a weapon of the Muslim League and deliberately gave the song a communal colour. The song remained the same, but the agenda changed. On October 15, 1937, Mohammad Ali Jinnah raised his voice against Vande Mataram in Lucknow, and Pandit Nehru was the Congress President at that time.
“On October 20, 1937, Nehru had written a letter to Subhash Chandra Bose saying that the background was making Muslims uncomfortable,” the Chief Minister said. “On October 26, 1937, the Congress decided to remove parts of the song,” he said. It was said to be a gesture of goodwill, while in reality it was the first official instance of appeasement. The ‘patriots’ opposed this. Jinnah raised the demand to change the song. At that time the Congress remained silent on this, which resulted in further boost to the Muslim League. This year, on 7 November, the 150th anniversary of India’s national song Vande Mataram was celebrated. ‘Vande Mataram’ written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was first published in the literary magazine Bangadarshan on November 7, 1875.
Later, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee included this hymn in his immortal novel ‘Anandamath’, which was published in 1882. Its music was composed by Rabindranath Tagore. It has become an integral part of the civilizational, political and cultural consciousness of the nation.