Ahmedabad: Gujarat BJP president Jagdish Vishwakarma sparked a controversy on May 4 after incorrectly attributing the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ to Rabindranath Tagore instead of its actual composer Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay at a public event celebrating the party’s victory in five state elections.
The celebration was held at the BJP’s Gujarat state headquarters, Kamalam, in Gandhinagar, in the presence of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. During his address, Vishwakarma stated that “Bengal’s great son Rabindranath Tagore composed ‘Vande Mataram’ years ago” a factually incorrect claim made before the state’s top leadership.
Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay composed ‘Vande Mataram’ in 1870, and it was first published in his novel Anandamath in 1882.
Congress leader Hemang Raval was swift to respond. “The public has come to expect such blunders from Jagdish Vishwakarma repeatedly, so this is nothing new,” Raval said. “The bigger point is that the BJP makes politics out of ‘Vande Mataram’ across the entire country, yet its own Gujarat president doesn’t know who wrote it. He told a press conference alongside the Chief Minister that Rabindranath Tagore composed it.”
Raval went further, calling the gaffe a direct insult to India’s freedom fighters. “This is a straightforward insult to ‘Vande Mataram’ and to every freedom fighter of this country,” he said. “It is hardly surprising that a BJP president lacks this basic general knowledge, since neither they nor their predecessor organisations the Jana Sangh or the Hindu Mahasabha contributed anything to the freedom struggle. They stood with the British Crown and dishonoured the nation’s martyrs.” The BJP is yet to issue any official response to the controversy.
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