Govt wanted debate on Vande Mataram as Bengal polls near: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday said the government pushed for a debate on Vande Mataram as the West Bengal assembly polls were approaching and that it wanted to divert attention from the problems people were facing.

Participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on 150 years of national song Vande Mataram, she hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is not the prime minister he used to be as his "self-confidence was decreasing and policies were weakening the country".

The Congress MP from Wayanad slammed the BJP for targeting first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and alleged that the government wanted this debate to make fresh allegations against those who fought for the country's freedom.

"Since you keep talking about Nehru, let's do one thing, let's assign a time for a discussion, list out all the insults against him... debate it and let's close the chapter for once and all," she said.

"After that, let's talk about today's issues - price rise and unemployment," she said.

The Congress leader also listed the "chronology" of the national song Vande Mataram and cited correspondence between Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose to rebut Prime Minister Modi's charge that the Congress indulged in politics of appeasement over Vande Mataram.

"The topic that we are discussing is part of the soul of the country. When we mention Vande Mataram, it reminds us of the history of our freedom struggle. This debate is strange; this song has made a place in people's hearts; so what is the need for a debate?" Priyanka Gandhi said.

"What is our objective, our responsibility towards people, how are we fulfilling that. ...Why are we having a debate on the national song? What debate can there be on it?"  "We are having this debate as Bengal polls are coming and the prime minister wants to play his role in that," she alleged.

The second reason why the government wanted this debate is that it wanted to make fresh allegations against those who fought for the country's freedom and made enormous sacrifices for the country, Priyanka Gandhi claimed  "You want us to keep delving into the past because this government does not want to look at the present and the future," she said.

"Prime Minister Modi is not the PM he used to be; it is showing that his self-confidence is decreasing and his policies are weakening the country. My friends in the government are silent because deep inside they also know this," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi urged people to understand the chronology of Vande Mataram. "Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote the song in 1875, when he wrote the first two stanzas and in 1882, published it in Anand Math after adding four stanzas," she said.

In 1896, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore sang it for the first time at a Congress session, she said.

She also cited correspondence between Nehru and Bose and rebutted PM Modi's charge that Congress indulged in appeasement.

She said that questioning the decision of having the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram as the national song was akin to questioning the Constituent Assembly and its members.

"Modi ji has been PM for about 12 years and Nehru ji was in jail for around the same period," she said on the prime minister's criticism.