New Delhi, 8 December (H.S.): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday accused the government of diverting public attention and wasting Parliament’s valuable time through a politically motivated debate on Vande Mataram.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha during the special discussion marking 150 years of the song, she asserted that the patriotic hymn was “sacred” to the Congress and integral to the nation’s identity.“

Vande Mataram holds a sacred place for the Congress Party, and we fully acknowledge its significance. But this debate has been initiated by the government to malign freedom movement leaders and to serve political interests in view of the upcoming Bengal elections,” Gandhi alleged.

Drawing comparisons between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jawaharlal Nehru, she remarked, “The time Mr. Modi has spent as Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru spent behind bars for the nation.”

She advised the treasury benches to hold a comprehensive debate on all their grievances against Nehru in one sitting so that “the remaining time could be devoted to addressing people’s real problems — inflation, unemployment, and women’s issues.”

Highlighting Nehru’s legacy, Gandhi said, “He laid the foundations of institutions like ISRO, DRDO, IITs, IIMs, and AIIMS. Without his vision, a ‘Developed India’ would not have been possible. Nehru lived for India and died serving the nation.”

Expressing dismay over misplaced priorities, she added, “While pollution chokes our cities, we are busy debating trivial matters.” Vande Mataram, she said, “resonates in every grain of this country; it is part of the nation’s soul and should not be dragged into political controversy.”

Defending the adoption of only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram as the National Song, Gandhi asserted that questioning this decision insults the framers of the Constitution. She recalled that Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had supported adopting two verses, and even Syama Prasad Mookerjee had raised no objection during the Constituent Assembly deliberations.

Accusing the ruling party of selective history, Gandhi said, “The Prime Minister failed to mention that Vande Mataram was first sung at the 1896 Congress Session. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay originally wrote the first two stanzas in 1875, and later added four more in his 1882 novel Anandamath. It was only around 1930, during the rise of communal politics, that divisions over the song began.”

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar