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| Vande Mataram was sung across India | | Minority instituions abstained | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, SEPT. 7: Even as the centennial of Vande Mataram on Thursday sharply divided Hindu nationalists and Sikh and Muslim leraders, India's national song was sung across the country. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD), Arjun Singh, who was held responsible for sharp diferences between the two major communities on singing of the national song, led led hundreds of people, including school students, to sing the song.
The national song got embroiled in a raging controversy after the Ministry of HRD issued instructions that it be sung in all schools to mark the centenary. The move was opposed by some Muslim clerics and leaders forcing the Central government to make the singing optional in schools. However, some State governments made the singing compulsory.
Arjun Singh sang the song along with social activists, traders, members of the resident welfare associations and school students at the Vande Mataram Smriti Diwas Sabha in Karol Bagh in west Delhi. Holding aloft the national flag people sang the national song at the function jointly organised by the Karol Bagh Bangiya Swarna Shilpi Samiti and the All India Bhrashtachar Virodhi Morcha.A few women were dressed as 'Bharat Mata' and a man was dressed like Mahatma Gandhi. Complying with a Delhi government circular, officials assembled at the secretariat Thursday morning and sang Vande Mataram. The song was also sung in government schools, even though it was not mandatory for all students to sing.
The song "Vande Mataram," which means in Hindi "I bow to thee, mother," was a rallying cry for Indians to rise against British colonial rule in the early 20th century. Last month, however, Muslim clerics asked their followers not to sing the song because Islamic law forbids them from bowing down to anyone or anything except Allah. Sikh leaders joined in on Wednesday and asked their faithful not to sing the national song becuase it primarily represents Hindus.
Several television channels on Thursday showed Hindu students singing the national song in their schools. Some newspapers carried the English and Urdu translations of the national song to help people of all faiths understand and sing it. However, several minority educational institutions, including in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Rajasthan, abstained from joining.
According to reports from BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the song written was sung in educational institutions and specially organised programmes at 11 am as per an order of the Union Human Resources Development Ministry. |
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