As the row over ‘Vande Mataram’ continues to escalate, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday defended the party’s stance, saying they sang the same song that was once rendered by Mahatma Gandhi
and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The controversy arose after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the party’s Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, and LoP in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, of disrupting the rendition of ‘Vande Mataram’ during an Independence Day event held at the Congress headquarters, Indira Bhawan, in New Delhi.
“Jo Mahatma Gandhi ne Vande Mataram gaya tha, wahi humne gaya. Jo Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji ne gaya, wahi humne gaya. (We sang the Vande Mataram that was sung by Mahatma Gandhi. We sang the Vande Mataram that was sung by Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji)”, Kharge said.
“This Vande Mataram has been sung for the past 18 years. Is it a crime?” he added.
