New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) Amid the concerns and objections raised by the Opposition over putting Vande Mataram (national song) on the same footing with Jana Gana Mana (national anthem), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday refuted the volley of charges as “untenable and unjustifiable”.

It said that attempts to portray Vande Mataram as “exclusionary or unconstitutional” were an intellectually dishonest and historically selective move.

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to X to issue a detailed rebuttal to the opposition’s claims that it would alienate the masses and promote discord in society.

He said that India’s rich civilisational heritage belongs equally to all citizens and Vande Mataram is an inseparable part of that heritage.

The controversy over Vande Mataram emanated after the Union Cabinet, on Thursday night, approved a proposal to amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which entails similar statutory protection to the national song (at par with the national anthem) and any obstruction to the singing of Vande Mataram would be treated as a punishable offence.

The Union Cabinet’s decision on Vande Mataram evoked strong reactions from the Opposition leaders, including AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who claimed that it was actually “an ode to the Goddess and hence cannot be treated at par with the national anthem”.

Malviya, rejecting the charge, said that the argument that Vande Mataram is merely an ode to a Goddess deliberately ignores the civilisational context of Bharat.

“Across Indian traditions, the motherland has long been personified as Bharat Mata”, not as a sectarian deity, but as a cultural and emotional expression of devotion to the nation. Nations across the world employ symbolism, allegory, and personification. Britannia represents Britain, Marianne represents France, Mother Russia represents Russia. India’s cultural symbolism cannot be selectively delegitimised simply because it emerges from Indic civilisation,” he said.

He further said that the song had become the rallying cry of India’s anti-colonial movement, countless freedom fighters marched to the gallows chanting Vande Mataram, and therefore, its emotional power in the national movement cannot be erased by retrospective ideological filters.

Further brushing aside Owaisi’s argument, he remarked, “India is not a theocratic state, nor does nationalism here depend on adherence to any one faith. But India is undeniably a civilisation shaped by millennia of Indic thought, traditions, symbols, and philosophies. Respecting Vande Mataram does not make India less constitutional, less democratic, or less inclusive.”

The BJP leader, also the party’s co-in-charge of Bengal, recalled that the Constituent Assembly had adopted Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem on January 24, 1950 and also accorded Vande Mataram, an equal respect and status as the National Song because of its historic role in India’s freedom struggle.

“To suggest that India’s constitutional founders ‘rejected’ Vande Mataram is factually incorrect,” he stated, showing the Opposition the mirror.

–IANS

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