Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday attacked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over the party’s Independence Day function in New Delhi, saying that it humiliated Vande Matram and that people will never forgive such a sin.

Speaking at a programme in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh, where a statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was unveiled, Shah said that the Congress had not given Vande Mataram its due respect and forgotten it.

He said: “Vande Mataram bolte bolte hazaron laakhon log phansi ke phande par chadh gaye, goliyan khayi thi, laathiyan khai thi, kai saal jail mein rahe. Vote bank ke lalach mein Congress ne Vande Mataram ko bhula diya tha (While chanting Vande Mataram, thousands of people went to the gallows, faced bullets, endured lathi charges, and spent many years in jail. But in the greed for vote bank, Congress had forgotten Vande Mataram).”

He said, “Inki nirlajjata dekhiye, Congress party ke mukhyalaya par Vande Mataram ka gaan ho raha tha. Chaalu gaan mein Congress ki netri Sonia ji ne Congress adhyaksh ko gaan rokne ka kaha. Hum sab TV par dekhte rahe, 80 saal ke baad Bankim babu ka ye amar mantra, amar gaan jab phir se samman prapt kar raha hai, woh bhi Sonia ji ko raas nahi aata hai (Look at their shamelessness. Vande Mataram was being sung at the Congress party headquarters. During the song, Congress leader Sonia ji asked the Congress president to stop the song. We all watched it on TV. After 80 years, Bankim (Chandra Chatterjee) Babu’s immortal mantra, his immortal song was once again receiving respect, but Sonia ji didn’t like it).”

‘Apologise with folded hands’

He said, “Sonia ji, 140 crore ki janta aapko dekh rahi hai. Aapke dwara kiya gaya ye paap, is desh ki janta kabhi maaf nahi karegi. Koi swapn mein bhi kaise soch sakta hai ke Vande Mataram, uska gaan adhura chhor diya jaaye. Congressiyon ko sharm aani chahiye. Aur zara bhi sharm bachi hai toh do haath jod kar Bankim babu ki amar aatma sey aur desh ki janta se maafi maangni chahiye (Sonia ji, 140 crore people of the country are watching you. The people of this country will never forgive this sin you have committed. How could anyone even dream of leaving Vande Mataram midway. Congress workers should be ashamed. And if they have any shame left, then they should apologise with folded hands to Bankim babu and the people of the country).”

The BJP on Saturday had accused Sonia Gandhi of objecting to the recitation of the full version of Vande Mataram at the Congress’s Independence Day event. The party had denied the allegation.

Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that in October 1937 in Kolkata, it was the Congress Working Committee, which included Mahatma Gandhi and other top party leaders, who had decided that Vande Matram will be sung at Congress conventions.

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Ramesh said that Rabindranath Tagore had suggested to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that the first few lines of Vande Mataram be sung, and since then, those very lines have been sung at every Congress function.

He said that the full version was sung at the party’s Independence Day function. “There is no question of an issue here, and there was no attempt to stop it. Since Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was standing for long, Sonia ji had merely asked for a chair for him, that’s all,” Ramesh said.