Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi has doubled down on his stand that he will not sing 'Vande Mataram' due to what he called its religious connotations. He said the BJP is responsible for creating tension among people.
Azmi, the MLA from Mumbai's Mankhurd-Shivajinagar assembly constituency, had also opposed making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in schools, saying people of different faiths should not be forced to participate if they do not wish to do so.
The Maharashtra government issued a directive asking all schools to sing the complete version of Vande Mataram from October 31 to November 7 to mark the 150 years of the national song.
Vande Mataram was written by Bankimchandra Chatterji on the occasion of Akshaya Navami on November 7, 1875.
"No one can force me to sing Vande Mataram," the Samajwadi Party MLA said.
"BJP is Bharat Jalao Party. It is a party that will destroy India. They play politics on religious lines, divide people and spread hate. They are always planning how to keep Muslims oppressed in order to stay in power. If you remove Muslim, Hindu, Pakistan, Bharat from the narrative, the BJP will become zero," Azmi said.
"A Muslim only prays to Allah. But many Muslims perform worship of the land, like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. There are thousands who pray to the land. Some Muslims consume alcohol. Am I going to thrash them? Some don't offer namaz, so am I going to beat them up? We never objected to anything. But pious Muslims will never allow anyone to be on the same level as Allah," he told NDTV when asked about whether he was politicising a national song.
At present, schools in Maharashtra sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram. The circular issued by the School Education Department on October 27 directed that the full version be sung during the week-long event.
Reacting to the directive, Azmi had said making the recital mandatory was not appropriate, citing religious beliefs vary among individuals. "Islam gives importance to respecting one's mother, but it does not permit prostrating before her," he had said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the year-long commemoration of Vande Mataram at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi on Friday and also release a commemorative stamp and coin.
