Now Reading: Kerala BJP to sing full Vande Mataram at 15,000 centres on I-Day
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Kerala BJP to sing full Vande Mataram at 15,000 centres on I-Day
The Kerala BJP will organise flag hoisting and full renditions of Vande Mataram at 15,000 locations across the state on Independence Day, state party chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced on Thursday. The move…
The Story in Brief
The Kerala BJP will organise flag hoisting and full renditions of Vande Mataram at 15,000 locations across the state on Independence Day, state party chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced on Thursday. The move follows a controversy after Chief Secretary Bishwanath Sinha directed that the Union government's prescribed six-stanza version be sung at official Har Ghar Tiranga events.
Opposition leaders in Kerala have objected to the stanzas, which contain religious imagery not traditionally sung in public. The BJP accused the CPI(M) and Congress of backing forces that insult the national song. Meanwhile, for the first time, Vande Mataram will be sung at the Red Fort during the main event and in 92 Bastar villages freed from Maoist control.
The Indian Opinion
The Vande Mataram row in Kerala is the latest round of a familiar game: pick a national symbol, insist on a strict version, then cry betrayal when the other side hesitates. The state's Left and Congress leaders object to stanzas from 1875 that reference Hindu goddesses, a fair religious sentiment. But the BJP's charge that this makes them anti-national is a lazy conflation of disagreement with disloyalty. The question to watch is whether the 92 Bastar villages hoisting the flag for the first time will be cited as proof of unity or claimed as a party trophy.
Sources (3): thenewsminute.com, timesnownews.com, timesnownews.com (2)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 3 sources.
