Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, BJP to start nationwide Vande campaign against Congress
The BJP has announced a nationwide campaign centered on the national song 'Vande Mataram' to challenge the Congress party's stance on the song's usage. The party frames the issue as a defense of national heritage against political appeasement and historical compromises.
Why it matters
This campaign signals an intensification of cultural and political polarization in India, using historical symbols to mobilize voters and target younger demographics.
NEW DELHI: BJP cited Mahatma Gandhi's "we have fallen on evil days" lament over the opposition built up against Vande Mataram Saturday to set the stage for an intense political battle with Congress and the wider 'secular' class for their objections to the national song's full version by announcing a nationwide campaign.The campaign, approved at a meeting of the new office-bearers under party chief Nitin Nabin, will focus on the song's association with freedom struggle, opposition by Pakistan's founder M A Jinnah and other Muslim hardliners which led Congress to prune it and "communal pressure or narrow vote-bank considerations" driving the current protests against the national song.The meeting adopted a four-page resolution, accusing Congress of "bowing before the same politics of appeasement" to which it had yielded in 1937, enabling Jinnah-led Muslim League to impose communal demands even upon national symbols.BJP's decision to launch the 10-point campaign comes after Congress…
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