“The BJP operates on the policy of divide and rule. It is more important to live by the principles of Vande Mataram than merely singing it,” he said.
Photo: IANS
Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav has said that the BJP is not a nationalist but an anti-national party, and that whenever there is an attempt to create conflict in the country, BJP members are at the forefront.
“The BJP operates on the policy of divide and rule. It is more important to live by the principles of Vande Mataram than merely singing it,” he said.
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“We should look back and see how much of it is actually being followed. Vande Mataram united everyone during the freedom movement, but today’s divisive forces want to break the country using the same slogan. Such people have betrayed the country before and continue to do so even today,” he said in a statement here on Monday.
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Participating in a discussion in Parliament on Monday on the completion of 150 years of the Vande Mataram song, Akhilesh Yadav said, “When Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore first sang Vande Mataram at the Congress session in Kolkata, its popularity spread among the common people.”
“When revolutionaries fought the British, they used the slogan Vande Mataram to unite the masses. Whether it was the freedom movement or the Swadeshi movement, revolutionaries advanced with this slogan. The country was united through Vande Mataram. The British were frightened. Wherever they heard the slogan Vande Mataram, they filed sedition cases against revolutionaries and sent them to jail,” he said.
“When children in Bengal sang Vande Mataram in classrooms, the British filed sedition cases against them too and jailed them. The British had even banned the song from 1905 to 1908. Despite the ban, our revolutionaries did not give up; they kept Vande Mataram alive in their hearts and minds and continued to spread the movement among the people,” said Yadav.
Yadav said that today the ruling party wants to claim everything as its own. This great song was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, but the ruling party is attempting to appropriate personalities and symbols that do not belong to them.
“When the BJP was being formed, there was a discussion about the speech of the party’s elected president. The debate was whether the BJP would follow a secular and socialist path. Despite all opposition, the BJP’s national president had to adopt the socialist movement, socialist ideology, and the secular path. Not only that, the BJP created confusion by displaying Jayaprakash Narayan’s picture on the stage, suggesting they would follow JP’s path. Today, let the ministers of this government explain how secular and socialist they truly are,” he said.
Yadav continued, “Vande Mataram is not about showmanship or politics. Listening to the speeches and views of the ruling party, it sometimes seems as if Vande Mataram is a song created by them. The truth is that those who did not participate in the freedom movement cannot understand its importance. Revolutionaries truly believed in Vande Mataram. Some people worked as spies and informers for the British against those revolutionaries. They are not nationalists, but anti-nationalists. The British ruled by creating divisions and conflicts. Even today, some people are following the same path. If their history is examined, it will be found that they neither sang Vande Mataram during the freedom movement nor after independence. Why didn’t they sing it? These British informers should be asked why they did not adopt Vande Mataram even after independence. Why did their narrow-minded thinking stop them from hoisting the national flag?”
Yadav said that Vande Mataram is not for the “fake nationalists” of politics. “The whole country understands the wrong intentions of these people. The essence of Vande Mataram was that communal politics would no longer work. The BJP began communal politics from one point, and the people of Uttar Pradesh ended it at that same point in 2024. During the freedom movement, even children who sang Vande Mataram were imprisoned under sedition laws.”
Akhilesh Yadav added, “We must strengthen the country by embracing the spirit of Vande Mataram. This song is given to us by the Constitution. Therefore, no one should be criticized or pressured in the name of this song. Vande Mataram is engraved in us as a feeling. Even if one does not remember the words or understand the meaning, the two words Vande Mataram are enough to awaken patriotism in every true Indian. For those who desire unity and integrity, and for whom brotherhood is the foundation of the nation, the two words Vande Mataram are sufficient. Vande Mataram is not just a song; it gives us strength. It was the slogan of unity during the freedom movement. People of all castes and religions united and fought the British together, raising slogans of Vande Mataram, Jai Hind, and Inquilab Zindabad. When the country awakened during the freedom movement, it drove out the British with these very slogans.”
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