The Hindu : National : What was the wrong message, asks BJP

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Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006
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National

What was the wrong message, asks BJP

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday reacted strongly to the Congress' rejoinder on the controversy surrounding the Vande Mataram celebrations.

On Congress media cell chief Janardan Dwivedi's observation that the party did not want to send out a wrong message, senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu wanted to know what the wrong message was.

"If September 7 has no historical importance, how is it that the committee presided over by the Honourable Prime Minister decided to have the song rendered across the country? Why did not the Congress remind the Prime Minister that there was nothing significant," Mr. Naidu asked at a press conference here.

`Congress developed

cold feet'

Displaying a copy of the letter written by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh to Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Naidu said the date was not fixed by the BJP or the National Democratic Alliance but by the Congress-led Government. It was only after opposition from "some Muslim fundamentalist organisations and Marxist intellectuals" that the Congress developed "cold feet."

RSS and the song

On Mr. Dwivedi's criticism that the song was not recited at meetings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Mr. Naidu said all RSS programmes began with a recital of Vande Mataram.

The Congress Working Committee's decision to celebrate the centenary of the launch of "Satyagraha" by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa was a "crude afterthought" following its "earlier blunder," he said.

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