Skipping of Vande Mataram rendition at I-Day function roils Kerala politics

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A day after the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Kerala skipped the rendition of Vande Mataram during the Independence Day function, the politics over the national song roiled the State on Sunday. Lashing out at the State government, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the omission of Vande Mataram in Kerala as part of the Independence Day celebrations is a serious constitutional and legal issue. The government, which has taken an oath to protect the Constitution and uphold the rule of law, needs to bear the same responsibility in its approach towards national symbols. It is unacceptable for the State government to take a stand on issues related to nationalism by bowing to political pressures, he said.

“Why is there a different approach only in Kerala when the national anthem and national song are part of official functions in Congress-ruled States like Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The echoes of the divisive politics that divided the country during the time of Muhammad Ali Jinnah are rising again in Kerala. The situation raises the question of whether the Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami are controlling the Congress,” he said.

BJP national president Nitin Nabin in a post on X said that bowing down before extremists has now become the Congress party’s permanent policy. “For the sake of their dirty politics of appeasement, they have insulted thousands of freedom fighters who had this very song on their lips and sacrificed their lives for the nation. This is not merely an incident of stopping a song, but a mark of that dynastic arrogance under which the Congress is averse to every single thing in India that this nation takes pride in,” he said.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Binoy Viswam questioned the full rendition of Vande Mataram at the AICC headquarters in Delhi and in Congress-ruled States. “A secular party can never agree to the rendition of the full version of Vande Mataram as was done at the AICC headquarters. The Congress lacks ideological clarity and is not sure of its own politics. If all its claims as the inheritors of Gandhi and Nehru’s ideology are true, they should apologise for what happened,” said Mr. Viswam.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal, MP, said the controversy raised by the BJP regarding the recitation of Vande Mataram at the AICC headquarters is part of a calculated move to divert public attention away from the genuine challenges facing the country.