Cong strangled Constitution by imposing Emergency during Vande Mataram centenary: CM Adityanath

Lucknow, Dec 22 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said that the Congress — from whose platform Vande Mataram was first sung — “strangled the Constitution" by imposing the Emergency in the country during the centenary celebrations of the national song.

Initiating a discussion on Vande Mataram in the state Assembly on the second day of the Winter Session, Adityanath said, “When the occasion of the centenary of Vande Mataram came, the same Congress from whose platform Vande Mataram was first sung, imposed the Emergency in the country in 1975 and throttled the Constitution.” The chief minister said the respect for Vande Mataram is not merely an emotional expression. “It also instils in all of us a sense of our national duties towards constitutional values,” he said.

Calling the song a "symbol of the nation’s soul, struggle and resolve", Adityanath said, “When Vande Mataram was celebrating its silver jubilee, the country was still under British rule.” He said the song was composed at a time when the British government, rattled after the First War of Independence, had reached the peak of repression and atrocities, and Indians were being subjected to severe hardships.

At that time, the Congress served as a platform to advance the freedom struggle, the Leader of the House said. “In 1896, Rabindranath Tagore lent his voice to Vande Mataram for the first time at a Congress session, and it became a mantra for the entire nation,” he said.

However, Adityanath said, “When the centenary of Vande Mataram arrived, the same Congress imposed the Emergency and strangled the Constitution.” He alleged that the Congress pursued a policy of appeasement and added that as long as Mohammad Ali Jinnah was in the Congress, Vande Mataram was not a decisive point of contention.

"As soon as Jinnah left the Congress, he made it a tool of the Muslim League and deliberately gave the song a communal colour. The song remained the same, but the agenda changed," the chief minister said.

"On October 15, 1937, from this very Lucknow, Muhammad Ali Jinnah raised a slogan against Vande Mataram, and at that time, Pandit Nehru was the Congress president. On October 20, 1937, Nehru wrote a letter to Subhas Chandra Bose, saying that its background was making Muslims uncomfortable," he added.

He added that the country is progressing in the direction of fulfilling the dream of Vande Mataram’s immortal composer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

Adityanath said that as part of a series of programmes launched from New Delhi to mark 150 years of Vande Mataram under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “possibly the Uttar Pradesh Assembly is the first legislature where such a detailed discussion on the national song is taking place”. PTI ABN ABN MNK MNK