NEW DELHI: The Jamait Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) has appealed to the Muslim community not to sing Vande Mataram during its centenary celebrations on Thursday if it was forced on them. Advising community members to register their protest through non-violent means, the JUH said it would take legal action if recital of the song was made mandatory.

At a press conference here on Wednesday, JUH general secretary Mahmood A. Madani accused some politicians of trying to create an impression that those who do not recite the national song were traitors.

"Through this, they want to create a divide in the country," he said.

Mr. Madani said there was no mention of Vande Mataram in the Indian Constitution as a national song and hence it was not mandatory for the citizens to recite it. "Even the Supreme Court has maintained that singing the National Anthem or national songs cannot be regarded as a criterion to judge patriotism of the citizens. We have no objections to calling India our motherland. We deeply love our motherland and have sacrificed our lives for her. But we cannot give her the exalted status of God and start worshipping her," he said.

"Even Ram Manohar Lohia and Rabindranath Tagore had advocated not making singing of Vande Mataram compulsory. Today, if some people want to force this on us, it is the responsibility of society and of our Hindu brothers to foil their designs to create disturbance," said Mr. Madani.

He said the JUH, which had actively participated in the freedom struggle and stood up against those who advocated division of the country on religious grounds, had neither advised students not to attend school to avoid singing the song nor would it allow them to sing it.

Refusing to comment on the statements made by some leaders of the community on the issue, Mr. Madani said that in a secular country every citizen was free to decide whether to recite Vande Mataram or not, but any decree making it mandatory was undesirable.

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