Following the debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram in both Houses, the Congress on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “his entire brigade” have been completely exposed for their lies.
Congress’s communication in-charge general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that there was a debate on Vande Mataram for three days in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
He said in a post on X that the national anthem was also mentioned in some speeches.
Ramesh said, “It is clear that the Prime Minister and his entire entourage have not read the two authentic and authoritative books written on the national song and anthem – written in the true sense by two of the best historians of India.”
He also shared screenshots of the cover pages of Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s ‘Song of India: A Study of the National Anthem’ and Sabyasachi Bhattacharya’s ‘Vande Mataram’.
“It is too much to expect that they will do so even after being badly humiliated and exposed for lies,” the Congress leader said.
Earlier, Ramesh had cited historian Sugata Bose’s comments that it was on the advice of Rabindranath Tagore that the party had decided in 1937 that only the first part of Vande Mataram would be sung at national meetings, and said these comments “further expose” Prime Minister Modi.
While the debate on completion of 150 years of Vande Mataram took place in the Lok Sabha on Monday, the debate on it continued for two days in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The opposition on Wednesday accused BJP leaders of distorting history, with Ramesh saying the entire purpose of the debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram was to defame first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and insult freedom fighters including Rabindranath Tagore.
On Monday, Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress, alleging that Nehru had betrayed “Vande Mataram” by giving in to Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s opposition to the national anthem, which led to the national anthem being fragmented and led India on the path of appeasement politics while catering to Jinnah’s communal concerns.
In the debate on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, members of the ruling party and the opposition engaged in a war of words in both the Houses on many issues including nationalism.