Opposition loses the plot again in the Vande Mataram debate
Close on the heels of the discussion in Lok Sabha on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, it was the turn of Rajya Sabha on Tuesday to debate on the same topic. Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, who set the tone of the discussion, explained the reasons behind the partition of the sub-continent, pointed out the unfortunate incident of the mutilation of the National Song by Jawaharlal Nehru as part of the Congress’ appeasement of Muslims. The Union government has launched many awareness programs to spread the message of Vande Mataram across the nation to make it familiar to Gen-Z.
The Home Minister is very economical with words; not a word more and not a word less. Most members, especially those from the opposition benches, can listen attentively to Shah’s speech and try to emulate him. The opposition party members have fallen into a rut from which there is no possibility of them coming out unless they see the writing on the wall.
This writer was trying to find out what the Houses did during the centenary of Vande Mataram. Narendra Modi’s speech on Monday remains the only reference to the national song’s centenary. “On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Vande Mataram, the persons who had sung the song as part of the freedom struggle were arrested and put behind bars. We got a national internal emergency declared by an autocratic government of the day, and it was the darkest phase in post-independence India,” Modi said during his speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday[1]. Nothing surprising in the young signora complaining that the family is being abused by the Prime Minister!
The Rajya Sabha looked like the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly while Tiruchi Shiva (DMK) spoke eulogizing his mentor, M Karunanidhi, and his present master, M K Stalin. His speech had everything except Vande Matharam. Shiva waxed eloquent about Dheeran Chinnamalai (1756-1805), the Tamil chieftain who was caught and hanged by the British East India Company, and he lamented that Chinnamalai remains an unsung hero even today. But Shiva was silent, and the DMK remained silent in 2006, it being the 250th birth anniversary of Chinnamalai. The DMK was the second largest constituent of the Congress-led Manmohan Singh government at the centre (2004-2013) and could have made the Congress dance to its tunes. It is only now, during the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, which was debated thanks to the initiative of the BJP, that Shiva could speak freely.
Sanjay Singh (AAP) and Shivadasan (CPIM), who lambasted the government “for its failure” in all rounds of governance, forgot ground realities. Shivadasan gave full credit to Harkishan Singh Surjit, the late CPIM general secretary, for giving us the freedom from British rule. The CPIM has the inherent capability to portray a sheep as a dog and vice versa.
But what went unsaid in the debate was about the president of the Congress party, who denied permission to sing Vande Mataram in the annual session of the party. It happened during the 1923 session of the All India Congress Committee at Kakinada when the then president of the party, Maulana Mohammed Ali, opposed the famous singer Vishnu Digambar Paslukar from rendering Vande Mataram, which was the national anthem of those days. Maulana termed it anti-Islamic, and since that day, the only mission of the Congress became appeasement of the minority communities. Former IAS officer V Sundaram of Tamil Nadu, who threw his resignation letter from service as the face of the then chief minister when he was threatened for not kowtowing to the lines of the ruling party, has written a detailed article about Maulana’s secularism.[2]
“The Maulana exclaimed that singing music was taboo in Islam, and as such, he would not permit it. The entire Assembly was stunned; everyone, including the top leaders and stalwarts adorning the dais like Mahatma Gandhi, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and others, sat dumbstruck, unable to think of a proper reply or retort to the Congress President. Paluskar, however, stuck to his post of duty. In a voice filled with righteous indignation, he retorted to the Maulana: ‘The Indian National Congress is not the monopoly of any one particular sect, nor is this place a mosque, where singing could be prohibited. You therefore have no authority to prevent me from singing Vande Mataram. Moreover, if singing in this place is against your particular religion, HOW IS IT YOU COULD TOLERATE MUSIC IN YOUR PRESIDENTIAL PROCESSION?’ asked Paluskar to which the Maulana sat stunned.
Not only this, the Congress has a history of falling on all fours in front of the Muslim League leaders whenever the issue of Vande Mataram came up. Immediately after the 1937 provincial polls, the Congress and Muslim League formed governments in the seven provinces. The Muslim League staged walkouts in all these provinces whenever Vande Matharam was sung. The OPINDIA has an article “Vande Mataram – the history of Muslim opposition and support” dated 31st July 2017.[3]
Ram Madhav, eminent writer, in his 8th November 2025 article “Vande Mataram-the national song with a tragic journey” has articulated the song’s history filled with tears and emotions. Our MPs should try to understand what they speak about before they set out on a journey in parliamentary life.
The opposition parties, especially the Congress, are being bowled out for successive ducks by the ruling party in both Houses of Parliament by bringing in national events which the former prefers to dump in waste baskets.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
Reference:
[1] Vande Mataram : The national song with a tragic journey – Nov 08, 2025, Ram Madhav
[2] Vande Mataram – the history of Muslim opposition and support – Jul 31, 2017, OpIndia
[3] To Reject Vande Mataram is No Treason – 4 – Dec 09, 2025, Boloji
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