TMC slams BJP MP for remark on national anthem

The ripples of Karnataka BJP MP Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri’s remark that the country’s national anthem was written "to welcome the British official" have reached West Bengal, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleging that the saffron party was questioning whether Jana Gana Mana would continue to be the national anthem.

Kageri made the remarks while addressing an event in Honnavar to mark 150 years of Vande Mataram, the national song.

The ruling party in the state held a protest demonstration at Jorasanko Thakurbari, the ancestral house of the Tagore family in Kolkata, on Saturday (November 8).

‘Won’t tolerate insults to Bengal's intellectuals’

Addressing the gathering, senior TMC minister Shashi Panja said the TMC would not tolerate “insult of Bengal's intellectuals” after garlanding a bust of Tagore within the Thakurbari premises.

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The minister further alleged that the BJP was questioning whether Jana Gana Mana would continue to be the national anthem.

‘BJP endorsing MP’s remark’

Accusing the BJP of not taking any action against Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri over his remark on the national anthem, Panja alleged that this inaction shows the ruling party at the Centre is supporting what he said.

“This means that they are endorsing what he said. Those who point to people as deshbhakt or deshdrohi should decide under which category such a comment falls," said Panja, flanked by party MLA Vivek Gupta and other leaders.

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She further alleged that the BJP was trying to create a division over Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Vande Mataram and Tagore's Jana Gana Mana.

"Both are for the nation; there is no difference - they have both left a legacy," she said.

Accuses BJP of divisive politics

"Why do you (BJP) have so much dislike for Bengal?" she asked, maintaining that West Bengal is considered mini-India with people from across the country living here for generations.

"We live here together in brotherhood," she said, asking, "Why is the BJP creating division among the people in the state?"

Panja claimed that the BJP was creating a narrative against Bengal.

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"They (BJP) are questioning your citizenship and voting rights, thus insulting the people of Bengal," she said.

A special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is underway in West Bengal, along with 11 other states, by the Election Commission.

What Tagore had said

Jana Gana Mana, a song written in 1911, has often been a subject of controversy, with newspapers of the time reporting that it was a tribute to the British monarch, King George V. However, Tagore, in a letter to his editor Pulin Behari Sen in November 1937, reportedly made it clear that "neither the Fifth nor the Sixth nor any George could be the maker of human destiny through the ages".

"I had hailed in the song Jana Gana Mana that Dispenser of India's destiny who guides, through all rise and fall, the wayfarers, He who shows the people the way...," Tagore reportedly wrote, as quoted by the BBC in a 2015 report. The song was originally a Brahmo hymn and its first stanza was adopted as the national anthem in 1950.

(With agency inputs)