Congress bans the recitation of Vande Mataram

According to media reports, within weeks of coming to power, Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh decided to ban the recitation of the national song, Vande Mataram in the secretariat. The tradition was started by a previous BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Earlier, in Madhya Pradesh Vande Mataram was sung on the first working day of every month.

The decision of the Congress government is an example of petty politics and is as shameful as it can get. Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan condemned this and in a series of tweets criticised the Congress government. “The song renders new energy to the patriotism present in the hearts of people. This is extremely unfortunate that the Congress has ended this convention. Today, Vande Mataram was not sung… Congress perhaps has forgotten that governments come and go, but there is nothing more important than the country and patriotism. I demand that the song is sung before a cabinet meeting as always, and it should also be sung at Vallabh Bhawan on the first day of the month,” he tweeted.

It is unimaginable that the oldest party of India can revoke the recitation of the national song just out of vendetta politics. But, this is not the first thing that the Kamal Nath’s government in Madhya Pradesh has done since coming to power out of vendetta politics. Earlier, he took an absurd decision of transferring 42 IAS officers without any substantial reason. Going one step further, the state government is now preparing to ban government employees from attending the RSS shakhas.

Previously, in the run-up to the elections, Kamal Nath had warned the government employees of the state to be ready to face the ‘consequences’ and his ‘wrath’ when Congress party forms the government in the state. It seems he was more than serious about this vendetta politics as is evident from the sweeping directive. Now, after assuming the power, CM Kamal Nath rather than spending time towards pursuing development goals is busy destroying the ecosystem which took the state on the highway of development after the 10 years of misrule of Congress led Digvijay Singh government in the state. The state bureaucracy is responsible for the policy implementation and running administration of the state and targeting such important machinery for political reasons shows the narrow mindset of the concerned person. Transfers are the part and parcel of a civil servant’s career. However, transferring them just because they held an important position in the previous ruling dispensation is wrong at all the levels.

However, this is not a new thing for the Congress party, as it did the same bureaucratic slaughtering when it assumed power after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Immediately after coming to power, the Congress party unnecessarily removed the Cabinet Secretary and Home Secretary only because they had been appointed by the previous NDA government.

Putting a ban on the recitation of the national song is definitely against the nation and the national integrity. The Congress party seems to have deluded the people of three states in the assembly elections but that might not be the case in the upcoming general elections. The nation is closely watching these appeasement tactics of the Grand Old Party.