Those who bowed at Jinnah's tomb should not teach us nationalism: Cong MP attacks BJP

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain on Wednesday attacked BJP for creating an unnecessary controversy over the national song Vande Mataram, asking whether those who bowed their heads at Muhammad Ali Jinnah's tomb should teach nationalism to them.

Participating in the debate on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram in the Rajya Sabha, he claimed that it is a historical fact that the Congress party has worked to spread Vande Mataram to every nook and corner of the country.

According to him, the controversy over deletion of some stanzas in the original Vande Mataram poem was settled in the CWC meeting in 1937 and subsequently in the Constituent Assembly.

He claimed that BJP leader L K Advani visited Pakistan in 2005, and paid homage at the tomb of Jinnah by bowing his head. "Nationalism is important for every Indian born in the country. Now, will those who bowed their heads at Jinnah's tomb teach us nationalism?" Hussain added that everyone respects Vande Mataram as India's national song. "Fringe elements will not decide who will sing Vande Mataram and who will not." BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra from Haryana called Vande Mataram "a source of inspiration" for everyone, while AAP member Swati Maliwal described it as the soul of the country.

Bhagwat Karad, BJP MP from Maharashtra, attacked the Congress, stating that it is in the party's culture to oppose the recital of Vande Mataram.

MP Kartikeya Sharma said the British tried to suppress the song because they wanted to suppress ideas that awakened political consciousness.

"Singing it invited fines, arrests, expulsions and reprisals. Yet, the song travelled from classrooms to jails, from Bengal to the rest of India and from whisper to war cry during the Swadeshi movement of 1905," Sharma said.

He added," Vande Mataram is not history. It is a philosophy still in motion. Its philosophy of self-reliance, moral courage, knowledge and national confidence is more relevant today than ever before." Naresh Bansal, BJP MP from Uttarakhand, while blaming the Congress for the partition of the country, said that Vande Mataram is a prayer to the nation.

AAP MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney called the song "a mantra that paved the way for our freedom." Ramdas Athawale, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, spoke in a poetic style to convey his view that Vande Mataram gives energy.

Ramji, an MP from BSP, said that people from all religions fought for the Independence of the country, and this song runs in the blood of every Indian.

Calling Vande Mataram a song for every Indian, Dharamshila Gupta, a BJP MP from Bihar, said that the song is an expression of the soul of Indians, as it united the country against the British rule. PTI JP ANU ANU