Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in the Assembly on Monday that when the occasion of centenary celebration of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ came, the Congress worked to strangle the Constitution by ‘imposing’ emergency in the country.
Initiating the discussion on Vande Mataram in the House on the second day of the winter session, Yogi said, “Respecting Vande Mataram is not only an emotional expression, but also gives us all a sense of national duty towards our constitutional values.”
He said, “It is also a symbol of the soul, struggle and determination of the nation. When Vande Mataram was celebrating its silver jubilee, the country was under British rule.”
Yogi said, “Vande Mataram was composed at a time when, after India’s first war of independence, the British rule had reached the height of oppression and atrocities and Indians were being tortured.”
Leader of the House said that at that time Congress was the platform to carry forward the country’s freedom struggle and for the first time in 1896, in the Congress session, Rabindranath Tagore had given its voice to it and it had become a mantra for the entire country.
He said, “But when the occasion of centenary of Vande Mataram came, the Congress from whose platform Vande Mataram was sung for the first time, tried to strangle the Constitution by imposing emergency in the country (in 1975).”
Referring to the realization of the vision of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yogi Adityanath said, “Today, 150 years of Vande Mataram are being completed, so we are grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under whose leadership India has moved forward with full confidence with the concept of a developed India.”
He said, “When we talk about Vande Mataram, it is not just a song for all of us but it is the consciousness of the freedom struggle within our country, its proclamation and the true feeling towards the revolutionaries of India.”
