Congress president and Rajya Sabha Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the ongoing controversy surrounding Vande Mataram, questioning the Centre’s decision to describe the Congress’s position as “anti-national” and motivated by “appeasement politics.”
Speaking to reporters in Kalaburagi, Kharge defended the Congress’s practice of singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram. He said the shorter version was agreed upon in 1937 by national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Kharge said the Congress had followed that decision for nearly nine decades and questioned why the matter was being raised now. He asked whether following the version agreed upon by those leaders could make Congress members “desh drohis” and questioned whether the leaders who supported the two-stanza version would also be labelled anti-national.
He stressed that the Congress had never opposed Vande Mataram and said both the party and its Seva Dal had regularly sung the national song. He also compared the issue with Jana Gana Mana, pointing out that although the national anthem originally contains five stanzas, all of them are not sung today.
Kharge accused the BJP and the Narendra Modi government of using the controversy to pursue what he called “politics of polarisation.” Taking a dig at Amit Shah, he questioned why the issue of singing the complete version had not been addressed earlier despite Shah having served as Home Minister for several years.
He also criticised attempts to target Nehru and other leaders of the freedom movement, arguing that political attention should instead focus on issues such as education, employment, inflation, investment and improving the living conditions of the poor.
Kharge questions denial of Reddy’s US visit
Separately, Kharge criticised the Centre for denying political clearance to Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s proposed visit to the United States.
He argued that such international visits are intended to attract investment and create employment and should not be blocked for political reasons.
Kharge pointed out that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have large Indian diaspora communities in the US and that chief ministers frequently travel abroad to meet prospective investors and encourage companies to establish businesses and industries in their states.
He alleged that the Centre was deliberately preventing Reddy from travelling and argued that investment attracted to an individual state ultimately benefits the wider Indian economy through increased business activity and job creation.
The two issues add to the broader political confrontation between the Congress and BJP over nationalism, the legacy of the freedom movement and the Centre-state relationship.
