New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday slammed the opposition for linking the debate on 150 years of the national anthem in the Rajya Sabha with the upcoming West Bengal elections, saying that the division of 'Vande Mataram' for the politics of appeasement led to the division of India.
Inaugurating the debate in the House, Shah said that Vande Mataram was the mantra that ignited India's cultural nationalism, and it is as relevant today as it was during the freedom struggle. He asserted that the song will remain relevant in the times to come to take the country towards a developed India.
Shah also attacked the Congress for questioning the need for a debate on Vande Mataram and accused the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of dividing the poem and limiting it to two paragraphs.
Shah said, "Yesterday in the Lok Sabha, some MPs questioned the need for a discussion on Vande Mataram. The need for a discussion... was as relevant when the song was written, during the freedom movement, today and in 2047 when a developed India will be achieved."
He said, "Some people are saying that Vande Mataram is being discussed because elections are coming up in West Bengal... They are trying to reduce the importance of Vande Mataram by linking it with the Bengal elections."
The Home Minister appealed to the members to take the spirit of the message of Vande Mataram to the youth of the country.
He said, "On the 50th anniversary of Vande Mataram in 1937, Jawaharlal Nehru divided it into two parts and limited it to two paragraphs. Congress honoured Vande Mataram in this way," leading to protests from opposition MPs. Shah called it the beginning of appeasement politics and said it led to the partition of India. "If they had not divided the song into two parts for appeasement politics, India would not have been partitioned," he said, leading to further uproar from the opposition benches.