Bankim Chandra's descendant seeks Sonia Gandhi's apology over 'Vande Mataram' row

Kolkata: Sumitro Chatterjee, BJP MLA and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, has sought an unconditional apology from Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi over an alleged incident at the AICC headquarters on Independence Day, where he claimed there was discomfort and repeated attempts to stop the singing of the full version of "Vande Mataram".

In a letter to Gandhi, Chatterjee said the alleged incident on August 15, as the country celebrated its 80th Independence Day, was "not merely unfortunate but a shameless repetition of a historical mistake."

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Chatterjee, the BJP MLA from Naihati, said he was writing as an ordinary citizen, a patriot, and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, expressing "deep pain, emptiness, and anger" over the episode.

Invoking Sri Aurobindo's remarks that the mantra had initiated the nation into the "religion of patriotism", Chatterjee said the alleged reluctance to fully recite "Vande Mataram" on free India's soil was an insult to the sacrifices of martyrs such as Khudiram Bose.

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He cited the song's role in the freedom movement, including its recitation by Sarala Devi Chaudhurani at the 1905 Benares Congress session, Bal Gangadhar Tilak's supporters singing it during his 1909 sedition trial, and its use as a rallying cry by nationalist students at Hyderabad's Osmania University in 1938 despite the Nizam's restrictions. He also referred to Rabindranath Tagore's rendition of the song at the 1896 Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress.

Chatterjee alleged that the Congress's "so-called dual policy" was not new, recalling that in 1937, the party had "bowed" to Mohammad Ali Jinnah's objections and truncated the song that October. He said the shadow of that "compromise" was visible again in the party's conduct.

He pointed out that Congress's own West Bengal student wing, Chhatra Parishad, uses the slogan "Mantra moder sanjeevan - Vande Mataram", questioning why the party's top leadership was uncomfortable with the same song.

Asserting that "Vande Mataram" was not the property of any one political party but the country's collective memory, Bankim Chandra's eternal legacy and a sacred national symbol earned through the blood and sacrifice of martyrs, Chatterjee said respecting the song was tantamount to respecting the history of India's freedom struggle.

He warned that "history forgives no one" and that any leadership which fails to respect its own mantra of freedom would be pushed by history into "the darkness of oblivion".

He said the incident had deeply hurt the sentiments of the people of West Bengal, and appealed to Gandhi to introspect and tender an unconditional apology to all countrymen, particularly the people of West Bengal, without any conditions.