 | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | POLITICS AT PLAY: HRD Ministry's directive to schools creates a controversy | | Its original intent was to inspire, not divide. Yet India's national song Vande Mataram has come to signify the country's latest political divide as the BJP and the Congress play patriot games with it. The last few days of the monsoon session of Parliament were rocked by BJP members chanting Vande Mataram in war tones and rushing to the well of the House. The Speaker tried to pacify them, pointing out that nobody could diminish the importance of Vande Mataram. "But he did it," said V.K. Malhotra, BJP spokesperson, pointing towards Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. It does look like Singh has sparked off yet another controversy even before the dust settles on his much-debated and divisive Reservations Bill. The latest dispute was set off by a letter sent out by Singh to all the chief ministers directing schools to sing Vande Mataram on September 7 as a befitting finale to the year-long centenary celebrations of the song. After protests by Muslim leaders, Singh backtracked and insisted he had never said the singing of the national song was mandatory. The BJP quickly jumped on to the bandwagon of patriotism and accused the UPA of playing vote bank politics at the cost of nationalism. "The country feels betrayed by yet another appeasement policy of the UPA Government," fumed BJP chief Rajnath Singh. The party plans to raise the issue at its national executive, which begins on September 7. The chanting of Vande Mataram will mark the opening of the session. It has also activated its minorities cell to stage a protest march to the Gandhi statue in Parliament and recite Vande Mataram next to it. All the BJP state governments have been asked to stick to Singh's original circular and sing Vande Mataram as planned. | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | RAJNATH SINGH, BJP PRESIDENT "The country feels betrayed by yet another appeasement policy of the UPA Government." | | The song was composed in 1875 by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and adopted as the national song at the Benaras session of the All India Congress Committee on September 7, 1905. Until 1930s it remained a part of the Congress-led freedom movement. However, a controversy broke out as some minority leaders felt it glorified Hindu deities, idol worship and had a regional bias. On October 28, 1937 a committee comprising Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose observed that the first two stanzas had no religious allusions. It is these two stanzas that Singh wanted school children to recite. However, the shahi imam and other Muslim clerics are up in arms over this. Zafaryab Jilani, member All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) says, "In Islam a mother enjoys status next to God but Islam does not permit sajda (prostration) even before a mother. Muslims can glorify and pray to only Allah." Maulana Hazrat Tauquir Raza Khan, a Barelvi spiritual leader, has appealed to Muslims not to send their children to school on September 7. The communal divide just got wider. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, says, "There has been no structured demand from any proper Muslim body. Yet the UPA Government has reacted to some stray comments." | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | ARJUN SINGH, HRD MINISTER "The directive was not mandatory. The song is a tribute to freedom fighters and martyrs." | | This, however, is not the first time the HRD minister has put the Government on a divisive path. With an apolitical prime minister and a helpless party chief, the foxy Singh has been setting the UPA Government's cultural agenda and getting away with it-whether it is desaffronisation of education, OBC reservations or the present Vande Mataram controversy. His latest move, too, does not have the whole-hearted support of the party. A party general secretary says, "It's just the Muslim fundamentalists who are opposing it. There is nothing wrong with the song. The Congress has been using this as an inspirational song since its first working committee meeting." Congress leaders recall that since November 1992 each session of Parliament has begun with the national anthem and ended with the national song. There is a feeling among a section of the Congress that the HRD minister had perhaps been a little too fast in backtracking. Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi says, "The BJP has to explain the charges raised by former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah. It must spell out the details of the murky episode, especially so because they are always issuing platitudes on nationalism and internal security." Interestingly, both Vande Mataram controversy and Abdullah's interview claiming both A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani had compelled him to release Maulana Masood Azhar during the 1999 hijack, have happened more or less simultaneously. The battle is no longer about the national song as both parties trade charges in competitive patriotism. Added to this is another controversy in the making. The Law Ministry is reportedly drafting a law making registration of all Hindu marriages compulsory. This latest salvo in the guise of appeasement politics has not gone down too well even with the Congress let alone the Opposition. On this, party General Secretary Magaret Alva said, "Registration of marriages is very important. But I don't know why only one community has been included." A delighted BJP, suddenly inundated with "nationalist" causes, has got an opportunity to raise the issue of a uniform civil code once again. "There are a couple of Congress ministers who seem to be working for the BJP," gloated Sidharth Nath Singh, convener of the BJP media cell. What has added fuel to the communal fire is that Uttar Pradesh elections due early next year. Not surprisingly, the Muslims are aware that the latest controversy is no more than appeasement politics. Shaista Ambar, president of the women's wing of the AIMPLB, says, "Why are such controversies raked up every time elections are near. Muslims should not fall pray to any party's game plan." For now, both the parties are singing the song for their vote banks. Index
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