'We will make singing 'Vande Mataram' compulsory,' says BJP chief Rajnath Singh

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Bulandshahar (UP),Sunday Aug 27, 2006 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh has said that the singing of the national song 'Vande Mataram' would be made compulsory if his party is returned to power.

Lashing out at the Central Government for making the singing of the national song optional, Singh said: "Those who say today that they will not sing 'Vande Mataram'...we will make them all sing it on this motherland if we come to power".

The refusal to recite 'Vande Mataram', he added, was an insult to all Indians.

"We hail our country, our motherland with the song 'Vande Mataram'...and today the Centre says whoever wants to chant it can do so, and those who don't want to were free to not sing it. There is no compulsion. I want to say that the farmers consider this land as their mother. If someone does not sing 'Vande Mataram', then it will be a cruel joke on their feelings and also the feelings of all Indians," he said.

Recently, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh had said that that the government would not impose its will on people to sing the song- penned by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1876 on September 7, the day marking the culmination of the year-long centenary celebrations of the song.

The Centre made it voluntary after a directive for the recitation of the song in schools on its centenary sparked off a controversy with many Muslims objecting to the compulsory recitation.

The song was rejected by Muslims on the grounds that its depiction of the nation as "Ma Durga" was against their religious beliefs. Another reason for its rejection was its origin as part of Anandamatha, a novel that the community felt had an anti-Muslim message.

The song, written by eminent 19th century Bengali author Chatterjee, was voted the second most popular song in a poll conducted by the BBC World Service in 2002.

The song first appeared in Chatterjee's book Anandamatha, published in 1882 amid fears of a ban by British Raj, though the song itself was actually written six years prior in 1876.