- Kerala Governor expressed displeasure over partial singing of Vande Mataram in Assembly
- CM Satheesan stated full rendition of Vande Mataram is not mandatory by law
- Opposition leader Vijayan supported partial singing, citing it opposes RSS agenda
Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Friday expressed displeasure over Vande Mataram not being sung in full in the State Assembly before his policy address, while Chief Minister V D Satheesan said that a complete recital of the national song was not mandatory.
Arlekar claimed that proper protocol should be followed when the Governor is attending such functions.
Before and after the Governor read out the UDF government's policy address in the Kerala Assembly, a band team performed the opening stanzas of Vande Mataram.
Speaking to reporters at Lok Bhavan after returning from the Assembly, Arlekar said it had been insisted that Vande Mataram should be sung in full whenever the Governor is present in the House.
He said that in the Assembly, the song was only played and not sung.
Arlekar added that he has already spoken to the Assembly Speaker, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, on the matter and expects the issue to be addressed.
"Let us see how things develop," he said.
Later, during a press conference held here, Satheesan said that rendering the Vande Mataram in full was not mandatory as there was no law enacted by the Parliament in that regard.
Satheesan was responding to reporters' queries regarding his view on Arlekar being displeased over the incomplete rendition of the national song.
The CM said that the Congress and its UDF alliance work within the framework of a political ideology and is governed according to the decisions of the party's central leadership.
He said that the party's central leadership has a clear stand on the issue and that is applicable to the alliance also.
The CM also said that singing the Vande Mataram in full was not mandatory as there was no law enacted in that regard by the Parliament. "There are only some guidelines issued by the Parliament," he said.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Pinarayi Vijayan also backed the state government's decision not to play or sing the national song in full.
"There is no need to play or sing the Vande Mataram in full. That has already been made clear. Singing or playing the first two couplets is enough and that was played in the House. To sing it in full is part of the RSS agenda. We are not obligated to implement it in Kerala," Vijayan said earlier in the day at a press conference here.
He also said that it was wrong to play it in full during the CM and his Cabinet's swearing-in ceremony and opined that the state government must have taken a "stricter stand" regarding it since then.
"This is the correct stand," the Marxist veteran said.
On the other hand, the BJP alleged that not singing the national song Vande Mataram in full in the Assembly, when the Governor attended the policy address, amounted to an "insult" to Lok Bhavan.
Senior BJP leader and Kazhakkoottam MLA V Muraleedharan said that, at events attended by the Governor, there is a central government directive that Vande Mataram should be sung in full, but this was not followed in the Kerala Assembly.
He alleged that the UDF government headed by Satheesan did this while "yielding to Jamaat-e-Islami and the CPI(M)".
The full rendition of Vande Mataram at the swearing-in ceremony of the UDF Cabinet had triggered a political controversy.
The Left parties (CPI and CPI(M)) objected to it, describing the complete recital as inappropriate in a secular and pluralistic society.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
