Analysis of row over ‘Vande Mataram’ as national song completes 150 years
Vande Mataram, the national song of our country, has completed its 150th anniversary. On this occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the one-year commemoration and released a stamp and coin to mark the special day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Image credit: PTI)
Vande Mataram, the national song of our country, has completed its 150th anniversary. On this occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the one-year commemoration and released a stamp and coin to mark the special day. Various programs were organized in different parts of the country to celebrate the national song and narrate the glorious heritage of India.
Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Singing ‘Vande Mataram’ makes our blood boil. The song expresses non-violence and sacrifice”. However, some radicals in our country are at odds over the national song that once inspired freedom fighters.
They manage to find the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ issue even in issues that concern our national pride.
‘You can’t force someone to say something’
A controversy broke out after Samajwadi Party Maharashtra President Abu Azmi said in the ‘Vande Mataram’ program that a “devout Muslim” cannot worship anyone else.
“… You cannot force someone to study anything. A person who only believes in Allah and does not even worship his mother cannot worship the earth and the sun according to Islam… A devout Muslim cannot worship anyone else.”
