Will you sing the Vande Mataram tomorrow?

NEW DELHI: People in Maharashtra will sing the Vande Mataram on Thursday at various places, including schools, offices and public grounds, to mark the centenary of its adoption by the Indian National Congress.

 

Cutting across party lines, religious barriers and ignoring the controversy surrounding it, the state will recite the national song to salute the motherland, organisations organising its rendition said.

 

“Vande Mataram, which became a great weapon of freedom fighters, was recited by founders of the Indian National Congress, including AO Hume, an Englishman in the late 1890s and was adopted by the Congress officially on September 7, 1905, much before the birth of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party," said Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Seva Dal Chairman Chandrakant Dayama.

 

Dayama said for the benefit of the younger generation, "we are organising the celebration all over the state and more than 1,000 Congress workers will participate in each village".

 

In Mumbai, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Prabha Rau and Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh along with Congress General Secretary Margret Alva will participate in the function at 11 am and give speeches on the importance of Vande Mataram after the national flag hoisting ceremony, he said.

 

"Congress workers will salute the freedom struggle and freedom fighters on the occasion with slogans like Azad Hind zindabad and Quaminara Vande Mataram, he added.

 

Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda said the song will echo across the state.

 

"Yes, everybody will sing the national song," Munda replied to a query on whether singing of the song was mandatory.

 

In Ranchi, party leaders along with members of its minority forum, will gather at the Elbert Ekka Chowk to sing the song.

 

Goa Bharatiya Janata Party workers are scheduled to sing it at several places in the state, including the historic Azad Maidan.

 

"Thousands of BJP members will sing Vande Mataram sharp at 11 o'clock, at 13 places in 11 talukas," BJP Goa unit president Rajendra Arlekar said.

 

The main programme will be held at Azad Maidan, he said.

 

"We have appealed to all school managements to sing the Vande Mataram and many have responded positively," Arlekar said.

 

While many schools in the state have not yet decided whether they would sing the song, Vidya Prabodhini school at Porvorim, on the city’s outskirts, said all its students will participate in the programme.

 

"All 1,500 students will sing Vande Mataram... We have taught them the song's meaning... They understand that it is a national song and hence will sing... there is no compulsion on them", Subhash Velingkar, Principal, Vidya Prabodhini School, said.

 

He said that the school has been teaching Vande Mataram along with other songs like Pasaydan to its students.

 

The Tamil Nadu government has instructed authorities of all schools and colleges to arrange for community singing of the Vande Mataram but only willing students need to participate.
    
The Directorates of School Education and Collegiate Education have issued circulars to educational institutions.

 

"There is no compulsion on the part of the students to participate in the community singing of the song. Only willing students can participate in the community singing," the circulars said.

 

The Indian National League and Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath had opposed circulars, which had made it compulsory for students to participate in the community singing organised as part of the centenary celebrations of the song.

 

The Tamil Nadu Government on Tuesday night announced that the singing of Vande Mataram in schools and colleges on September 7 was not compulsory.

 

The Meghalaya government has instructed all schools to ask its students to sing the national song.

 

Deputy Chief Minister in-charge of Education Donkupar Roy said, "We have issued the instructions to all the schools as per the Centre's directive."

 

Asked if the singing was made optional or mandatory for the students, Roy evaded a direct reply saying, "We just want them to sing the song."

 

The government instruction came on a day when BJP's state unit urged Roy to initiate steps for 'compulsory singing' of the Vande Mataram in all education institutions and government offices in Meghalaya.

 

The BJP government in Chhattisgarh has completed preparations for mandatory singing of the song in educational institutions in the state, including madrasas, a senior official said.

 

Preparations have been completed for singing the Vande Mataram in all schools, colleges and educational institutions at 11 am, School Education Secretary of Chhattisgarh, Chittaranjan Kumar Khetan said.

 

Chief Minister Raman Singh expressed his displeasure at the controversy created by some sections over the singing of the national song.

 

"It is most unfortunate that some people are trying to create a controversy. How can one say he cannot sing the national song?" he told reporters recently.

 

Amidst stray protests by some Muslim bodies against the singing of the Vande Mataram, preparations are on for the recitation of the national song in government offices and educational institutions in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

 

In the state capital, arrangements are being made for functions to recite the song at 11 am at government offices, including at Vallabh Bhavan housing the Mantralaya as well as Satpura and Vindhyanchal buildings, officials said.

 

Similarly, divisional commissioners and district collectors were informed of government's decision for recitation of the song at all its offices, local bodies and panchayat offices, as well as the educational institutions, they said.

 

The government, which had initially issued a circular asking educational institutions to hold functions and ensure recitation of 'at least two stanzas' of the national song, later decided to hold its recitation at government offices too, they said.

 

While the decision to recite the song evoked protests from a few Muslim bodies like the Jamait Ulama, others including State Madarasa Board have made it clear that the order for its singing would be followed, saying, "Our motherland is like paradise. Why should anyone object to saluting it?"

 

"Why singing of a song, not understood by 90 per cent of the people, is stressed when there are other generally-accepted patriotic songs?" Ulama spokesman Noorulla Yusufzai has said.

 

"Though its singing can be made mandatory at government offices, asking educational bodies and certain section of society to follow it, is unconstitutional," he said.

 

The Orissa government issued a circular making it mandatory for the recitation of Vande Mataram in government-run primary and secondary schools on Thursday.

 

The Arunachal Pradesh government has left to the discretion of educational institutions.
   
Education Secretary Ganesh Koyu said that since the state government has not received any instructions from the central government, ''we have left it to the discretion of the educational institutions.''

 

The singing of the Vande Mataram will be optional in schools in West Bengal.

 

"Those who wish can sing it, but we do not want to make it compulsory and create problems for others," said School Education Minister Partha De.

 

Noting that the patriotic song composed by Bengali writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay would continue to be held in high esteem, the minister said the government would not like to create any controversy over it.

 

The Opposition BJP has said the singing of the Vande Mataram should be compulsory.

 

The RSS said it would organise a procession to commemorate the centenary of the song, notwithstanding the reservations of the state's Marxist government.

 

Congress officials said the party has lined up a series of programmes, including the paying of tribute at the statue of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, hoisting the first national flag hoisted at the Parsi Bagan here in 1906, singing of the song by a choir, and a discussion on The history of Vande Mataram and its impact on our freedom struggle.
    
Authorities of the Ramakrishna Mission-run Narendrapur School said they were yet to take a decision on whether or not students should sing the Vande Mataram.

 

The Left Front government in Tripura sent a circular to all schools to ask their students to sing the Vande Mataram, officials said.

 

They said following a letter from the Union Human Resource Development ministry, the government has decided to send a circular to every school on the singing of the national song to mark its centenary.

 

The BJP strongly condemned the decision of the Uttar Pradesh Education Department to declare a holiday on Thursday in Kanpur to prevent untoward incidents in educational institutions during the centenary celebrations of the Vande Mataram.

 

Terming the education department's decision an attempt towards division of the state on the basis of religion, BJP minority cell chief Tanveer Hyder Usmani said, "Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is once again trying to divide the state on the basis of religion by closing schools tomorrow."

 

As a precautionary measure principals of the primary and higher secondary schools have been advised to keep their institutions closed tomorrow, District Inspector of School SP Dwivedi has said.