‘Intellectual Bankruptcy’: Shiv Sena-UBT criticises BJP over Vande Mataram controversy
Mumbai, Aug 18 (IANS) Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership, accusing the ruling party of “intellectual bankruptcy” and stirring up unnecessary political controversies surrounding the national song, Vande Mataram.
In a hard-hitting editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana, the Thackeray camp asserted that the BJP played no historic role in the Indian freedom struggle, national milestones, or iconic slogans such as Vande Mataram and Inquilab Zindabad.
The editorial targeted BJP founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, noting his involvement in the Muslim League-led Bengal cabinet and accusing him of advocating for the British regime to sternly suppress freedom movements, including the Quit India movement.
The party argued that rather than demanding apologies from political opponents, the BJP should apologise to the nation for historically betraying the freedom movement.
The attack comes amid heightened friction between the Opposition and the central government over parliamentary proceedings.
According to the editorial, the Congress-led Opposition recently disrupted Parliament to demand a statement and an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding an alleged pellet gun firing incident at Jantar Mantar.
The editorial claimed that Home Minister Shah evaded the parliamentary session, later labelling the Congress’s stance on Vande Mataram as “intellectual Naxalism” while demanding an apology. “To drag Vande Mataram into political battles and accuse opponents of ‘intellectual Naxalism’ reflects a sheer lack of historical awareness and political desperation,” the editorial stated.
The editorial outlined the song’s deeply rooted legacy within the Indian independence movement to counter the central government’s claims. In the 1896 Kolkata Session, Rabindranath Tagore first sang Vande Mataram at the Kolkata Congress session under the presidency of Rahamatullah M Sayani. When the British colonial government banned the song and arrested those who sang it, it was Congress members and leftists who went to jail to uphold it.
Following advice from Rabindranath Tagore in a letter to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the Congress Working Committee—including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Maulana Azad, Govind Ballabh Pant, and Acharya Kripalani— in 1937 unanimously adopted the first two stanzas of the song. Before Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his landmark Tryst with Destiny speech, Sucheta Kripalani rendered Vande Mataram in the special midnight session of Parliament, said the editorial.
The Thackeray camp also sharply criticised the current administration’s handling of national symbols and institutions.
The editorial accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shutting down the historic Parliament building—where India’s independence was originally inaugurated—and replacing it with a structure it likened to a “private Gujarati marriage hall.”
Furthermore, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena highlighted that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological progenitor of the BJP, did not hoist the Indian Tricolour at its offices or branches on Independence Day for nearly 50 years post-independence.
Drawing further historical parallels, the editorial recalled Balajipant Natu lowering the Maratha flag to hoist the British Union Jack at Pune’s Shaniwar Wada on November 17, 1817. It noted that it was only on August 15, 1947, that freedom fighter Krantisinh Nana Patil lowered the Union Jack and raised the Tricolour at the historic site amid chants of Vande Mataram.
Invoking past statements by former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, the editorial emphasised that Vande Mataram should remain above political division, reiterating that freedom fighters and the Congress had consistently embraced the song throughout the independence struggle.
–IANS
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