Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that Vande Mataram should not be imposed and nationalism should take everyone along. He also demanded that people should have the freedom not to sing Vande Mataram for religious or personal reasons.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor has said that Vande Mataram should not be imposed and nationalism should take everyone along. In an article written in ‘The Indian Express’, he gave this reaction to the new guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry regarding Vande Mataram.
He said that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s ‘Vande Mataram’ was a big source of inspiration for the revolutionaries during the freedom struggle. But later it became the cause of controversies. With the aim of taking everyone together, the Constituent Assembly had recognized ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem and ‘Vande Mataram’ as the national song. The Supreme Court has also said that not standing or not singing along during the singing of the national anthem is not lack of patriotism. He has demanded in the article that the same method should be adopted in the case of Vande Mataram also.
In India, insisting that everyone assimilate into the majority culture is not good for democracy. Those who want to sing Vande Mataram have the freedom to do so. But there should also be freedom not to sing it due to religious or personal reasons. He also made it clear in the article that they should also have the right to express their respect silently.