MHA rule ignites cultural, political row at Vijay’s oath taking

As thousands cheered for actor-turned politician C Joseph Vijay during his oath-taking ceremony as the new chief minister of Tamil Nadu, the national song, Vande Matram, was sung in full, followed by the national anthem, the State song Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu at the packed Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai, on Sunday.

The sequence follows an order by the Ministry of Home Affairs in January stating that all six stanzas of Vande Mataram, written by Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, shall be sung first when the national song and the national anthem are to be played together.

The Government’s directive had triggered a major political row, with Opposition parties sharply criticising the move. The Congress said the move went against a decision taken during its 1937 session on the advice of Rabindranath Tagore to remain sensitive to the sentiments of different communities and religions. The then West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee, had called the directive an insult to Tagore, arguing that the national anthem, written by Tagore, should not be played after Vande Mataram.

The MHA directive also notified that all the six stanzas that were part of the original Vande Mataram should be sung at official functions. This marked a departure from the practice of singing only the two stanzas adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1950.

The sequence, interestingly, was not followed on Saturday in West Bengal, the birth place of Tagore and Chattopadhyay, at the oath taking ceremony of CM Suvendu Adhikari. On Sunday, however, Vande Mataram was sung before the national anthem in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and Vijay, who shared the stage together in Chennai.

“During the ceremony, Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu was placed third, while Vande Mataram and the national anthem were given the first and second positions, respectively,” said CPI State secretary M Veerapandian, adding that Government ceremonies in Tamil Nadu traditionally begin with the State song and end with the national anthem.

Veerapandian alleged that it had been established during the freedom struggle itself that Vande Mataram could not serve as the national anthem because the song is dedicated to a specific deity and possesses a sectarian religious character.

“In this context, the decision, allegedly taken under the directives of Lok Bhavan, to accord the primary position to ‘Vande Mataram’ while placing the Tamil invocation third in the agenda of the swearing-in ceremony organised by the Tamil Nadu Government constitutes a violation of established tradition,” he alleged.

 “The Tamil Nadu government must provide a public explanation identifying those responsible for this error,” he said, adding that the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), as a participant in the ceremony, must ensure that the ‘Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu’ is restored to its rightful place and that such an error is not repeated.

Although TVK on its own did not secure the majority in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, Vijay managed to get support from the Congress, VCK, CPI, CPI (M) and IUML to gather 120 MLAs and cross the 118 majority mark to form the government.

The Centre is observing the 150th year of Vande Mataram, which played a historic part in the struggle for freedom from British rule. In the latest move just days ago, the Union Cabinet approved an amendment to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, granting Vande Mataram the same statutory protection as the national anthem.