VHP stages sit-in on fatwa against 'Vande Mataram'

Office bearers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Awadh region (VHP) today staged a sit-in in front of Vidhan Bhawan and threatened a bigger agitation, while protesting against the Muslim clergy for issuing a fatwa against Vande Mataram.

The VHP activists demanded that the Centre should take measures to check insult of the national song.

"National song Vande Mataram is not against any religion and should not be associated with it. It should be recited and respected," said VHP media incharge Ambuj Kumar Ojha.

Yesterday VHP had lashed out at Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind for adopting a resolution asking Muslims not to recite Vande Mataram, and demanded a public apology from Union home minister P Chidambaram for "keeping silent despite the anti-national pronouncement being made in his presence."

"This (the resolution) has once again exposed the anti-national character of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind," VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia said.

The Jamiat-Ulema-e Hind passed a resolution at its annual meeting in Deoband on Tuesday asking members of the community not to recite Vande Mataram and supported seminary Darul Uloom's edict, which opposes any prayer involving the song.