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Vande Mataram controversy continues |
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The controversy over the celebrations to mark one hundred years of the national song, Vande Mataram, continues with the BJP directing its state units and governments to make its singing compulsory in all educational institutions on Sept. 7. At the same time, Dar-ul-Uloom of Deoband has asked Muslim parents to withdraw their children from schools forcing them to sing Vande Mataram. The Indian Union Muslim league has said that Vande Mataram was anti-Muslim and any attempt to force its singing will go against the secular character of the Indian polity.
BJP president Rajnath Singh has slammed what he called the UPA Government’s “appeasement policy” and said that party units across the country had been told to sign Vande Mataram on September 7. State governments controlled by the BJP have asked educational institutions to organise the singing of Vande Mataram on that day.
The Congress is continuing its flip-flop on the subject. While H.R.D. Minister Arjun Singh has asked all states to have Vande Mataram sung in schools, it has been made clear that this advice is only recommendatory and not mandatory. But in the north-eastern state of Assam, where the Congress is in power, the government led by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has made the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in all educational institutions on September 7. The decision has made the Muslim leaders angry and have said that they will launch a campaign against the Government order.
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