Bollywood playback singer Javed Ali, the voice behind hits like “Ek Din Teri Raahon Mein” and “Jashn-e-Bahaara”, believes that the controversy over singing the full version of “Vande Mataram” should not continue.
“Our national song is deep inside my heart and I don’t want to fall into any controversy about this,” he said after singing the A.R. Rahman version on the concluding day of Durgapur Utsav last night. He performed to a packed audience at the Rajiv Gandhi Maidan here, his set of numbers eliciting huge enthusiasm and applause. The A.R. Rahman song is not the complete version of the original “Vande Mataram” composed by Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1870 for his novel Anandamath.
The poem, which is an ode to the motherland, was officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1905 to serve as a salutation to Mother India. Some verses of the song mentioned Hindu Goddesses, which the Congress, on the suggestion of Mahatma Gandhi and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, had omitted, adopting just the two stanzas that became the country’s national song on 24 January, 1950.
After 155 years of its composition, the poem rocked Parliament last week while observing 150 years of its adaptation when the ruling NDA demanded inclusion of the full text as the national song.
Javed performed the A.R. Rahman version, which the musician had incorporated in his song ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ in 1997. The original tune of “Vande Mataram” was based on ‘Desh Raag’ and set to tune by Jadunath Bhattacharya. After his programne concluded, Javed was asked whether the full text should be included as the national song. He told The Statesman: “It’s always deep inside my heart and I don’t want any controversy on this.”