Don’t rake up Vande Mataram row, says Congress

Hours after the BJP sought an apology from Home Minister P. Chidambaram over the Vande Mataram issue, the Congress on Wednesday said the matter was a sensitive one involving religious sentiments and no controversy should be raked up over it.

“This is a very sensitive issue. It is our national song. And there are also religious sentiments attached. Keeping in mind all these facts, the issue should not be made controversial,” party spokesman Shakeel Ahmad told journalists here.

He was responding to queries regarding the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind’s resolution at Deoband on Tuesday asking Muslims not to recite ‘Vande Mataram’ on the ground that some verses were against the tenets of Islam.

This was one of the 25 resolutions passed at its 30th general session addressed by Mr. Chidambaram.

Mr. Chidambaram on Wednesday issued a clarification saying the resolution was not passed in his presence and he was not aware of any fatwa against Vande Mataram, women’s reservation and television.

However, the BJP said it was surprised that the “Home Minister of a country where terrorism, separatism and naxalism are at a peak was not aware that he was going to attend a programme where our national song Vande Mataram was insulted.”

BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: “The resolution was passed a day before Chidambaram attended the conference and the news had already appeared in newspapers and some news channels”

Mr. Naqvi, one of the few Muslim faces of the BJP, sought an apology from Mr. Chidambaram.

Uddhav’s stand

Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday slammed the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, saying those who opposed the national song should go to Pakistan. “If you don’t want to salute your motherland, then who do you salute? What is the shame in saluting Bharat Mata? Those who do not want to salute Bharat Mata should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh,” Mr. Thackeray said.

He said the fact that the decree was adopted in the presence of Mr. Chidambaram showed that the Centre was engaging in the appeasement of minorities.

Mixed Muslim reaction

The Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind resolution has evoked mixed reaction from Muslim leaders, with one section voicing disapproval on raising a “dead issue” and another asserting that its singing or not could not be the criteria for defining patriotism.

“This [Vande Mataram] is a dead issue. I don’t understand what compelled them to raise the issue. Why such things are raised when more and more serious issues are there?” asked Yahya Bukhari of the Jama Masjid United Forum. “If the song is about salutation, there is nothing wrong,” he said, adding that Muslims love but do not worship their country and this was part of their faith.

However, Manzoor Alam of the Institute of Objective Studies said he did not think there was any controversy in supporting the resolution.

SP reaction

The Samajwadi Party said the BJP should not politicise the issue as Muslims had “religious compulsions” against reciting the national song.