New Delhi: The full recital of national song "Vande Mataram" at the Congress-led UDF Cabinet swearing-in ceremony in Kerala on Monday has triggered a controversy in the southern state. The Left has criticised the full rendition of "Vande Mataram", terming it an "incorrect step" and saying it is "inappropriate in a pluralistic society."
The BJP, on the other hand, has hit out, accusing the Communists of "insulting" the national song in order to "appease radical vote-bank forces such as Jamaat-e-Islami and SDPI.
While the CPIM was the first to raise objection on Tuesday, the CPI joined forces with it and questioned the decision to recite the full song. "When you go back to history and look at the reasons for removing the few lines of Vande Mataram, it was because those lines would lead to a certain kind of thinking and it was not compatible with Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi's vision of a secular nation. The Congress party shouldn't have forgotten that," CPI's Binoy Viswam said.
Distancing itself from the row, sources in the new government said they had no role in the programme, as it was fully organised by the Lok Bhavan, PTI has reported.
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Going into its reasons for the objection, the CPIM state secretariat said the Congress Working Committee had, as early as 1937, taken the view that singing all parts of "Vande Mataram" was not suitable for a pluralistic society, leading to the removal of certain portions. It noted that the Constituent Assembly later clarified in 1950 that only the first eight lines of the approved version should be treated as the national song.
The party argued that some portions of the song represent religious beliefs and that using the full version in official ceremonies goes against India's plural traditions. It said the Cabinet eventually "reversed that position" by including the omitted portions.
The CPIM also pointed out that similar full renditions were not performed even in BJP-ruled West Bengal during swearing-in ceremonies, suggesting Kerala's move was unusual. It added that governments should avoid actions that could "weaken a pluralistic society" or "undermine secularism."
Responding sharply, BJP Kerala president and MLA-elect from Nemom Rajeev Chandrasekhar accused the Left of distancing itself from India's culture and traditions and said Marxism was an "imported ideology" unable to align with Indian values.
Chandrasekhar also alleged that the Left has a record of forcing its cadres to apologise for slogans like "Jai Hind," and accused it of targeting the national song to appease "vote-bank forces" such as Jamaat-e-Islami and SDPI. He posted on 'X' that questioning Vande Mataram is the "final desperate act of a decisively rejected CPIM" in Kerala. "Disrespecting India for political survival is not secularism. It is dangerous appeasement politics and pro-radicalism," he wrote.
