Mumbai: After the ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ controversy ongoing in the country, now there is another controversy arises after a top RSS leader said that ‘Vande Matram’ is the real national anthem and not the Jana Gana Mana.
“Jana Gana Mana is today our national anthem. It has to be respected. There is no reason why it should evoke any other sentiment,” RSS General Secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi said.
“But it is the national anthem as decided by the Constitution. If one considers the true meaning, then Vande Mataram is the national anthem,” he said on Friday at the Deendayal Upadhyay Research Institute in Mumbai.
He further said that he consider things that is framed by the Constitution to be national.
However, the emotions expressed in ‘Vande Mataram’ denote the nation’s character and style and this is the difference between the two songs but both deserve respect; he added.
“When was Jana Gana Mana written? It was written some time back. But the sentiments expressed in Jana Gana Mana have been expressed keeping the state in view,” he said.
‘Vande Mataram’, literally, “I praise thee, Mother”, is a poem by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
This Vande Matram rhym means ‘Salute to the Motherland’. It is also a fact that it has palyed a significant role in freedom fighting movement.
In 1950, the song’s first two verses were given the official status of the “national song”, different from the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana.
