BJP slams Sonia Gandhi over Vande Mataram ‘insult’; Congress denies charge

The BJP on Sunday demanded a public apology from Congress leader Sonia Gandhi within 24 hours, alleging that she showed "utter disrespect" to Vande Mataram during the party's Independence Day event. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the entire state was "fuming" and accused the Congress of "appeasement politics" aimed at satisfying a particular vote bank. Union Home Minister Amit Shah called the alleged act an insult to the national song and to its author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

A video from August 15 at the AICC headquarters showed Sonia Gandhi speaking to party president Mallikarjun Kharge while Vande Mataram was being played. The BJP claimed she gestured to stop the rendition. The Congress has rejected the charge, saying Gandhi was only asking for a chair for Kharge, who had been standing. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari has lodged a formal police complaint at the Urwa Police Station in Karnataka.

Sumitro Chatterjee, a BJP MLA and direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, wrote to Gandhi expressing "deep pain, emptiness, and anger" and sought an unconditional apology. The controversy comes as the six-stanza version of Vande Mataram was sung at the Red Fort for the first time on August 15. The BJP's Pradeep Bhandari alleged the Congress' conduct was part of a "dimagi Naxal ecosystem", a phrase used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.