'Why are we debating Vande Mataram 79 years after independence?' asks Priyanka Gandhi in LS
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Monday participated in the discussion on '150 years of Vande Mataram' in the Lok Sabha and questioned why the House was conducting a debate on the national song, 79 years after India's independence, when there were more important issues to discuss. The topic that we are discussing is part of the soul of the country. When we mention Vande Mataram, it reminds us of the history of our freedom struggle. This debate is strange; this song has made a place in people's hearts; so what is the need for a debate? Priyanka Gandhi said. What is our objective, our responsibility towards people, how are we fulfilling that...Why are we having a debate on the national song? What debate can there be on it? she asked. She alleged that the discussion was conducted to divert the attention of people from other key issues. We are having this debate as Bengal polls are coming and the prime minister wants to play his role in that, she alleged. The second reason why the government wanted this debate is that it wanted to make fresh allegations against those who fought for the country's freedom and made enormous sacrifices for the country, Priyanka Gandhi claimed. You want us to keep delving into the past because this government does not want to look at the present and the future, she said. Prime Minister Modi is not the PM he used to be; it is showing that his self-confidence is decreasing and his policies are weakening the country. My friends in the government are silent because deep inside they also know this, she said. Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she alleged that his self-confidence was decreasing and policies were weakening the country. The Congress MP from Wayanad slammed the BJP for targeting first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and alleged that the government wanted this debate to make fresh allegations against those who fought for the country's freedom. Since you keep talking about Nehru, let's do one thing, let's assign a time for a discussion, list out all the insults against him...debate it and let's close the chapter for once and all, she said. After that, let's talk about today's issues - price rise and unemployment, she said. The Congress leader also listed the chronology of the national song Vande Mataram and cited correspondence between Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose to rebut Prime Minister Modi's charge that the Congress indulged in politics of appeasement over Vande Mataram. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote the song in 1875, when he wrote the first two stanzas and in 1882, published it in Anand Math after adding four stanzas, she said. In 1896, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore sang it for the first time at a Congress session, she said. She said that questioning the decision of having the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram as the national song was akin to questioning the Constituent Assembly and its members. Modi ji has been PM for about 12 years and Nehru ji was in jail for around the same period, she said on the prime minister's criticism.
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