BJP’s Vande Mataram propaganda is hollow, says Venugopal

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal has charged the BJP with spreading hollow propaganda over the Vande Mataram song, warning that the party’s actions over the past decades will ultimately reveal its true motives.

Addressing the media here on Monday, Mr. Venugopal said that Vande Mataram was not being recited in the shakhas of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The BJP is trying to misinterpret the song in connection with the Bengal elections, he said.

The Congress leader reiterated that the BJP has never shown reverence for the national anthem or its author, Rabindranath Tagore; nor has it had any connection with the Indian independence movement or freedom struggle songs. “The BJP’s main role is to twist and erase India’s history,” he said.

He said the allegations raised by Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala about the involvement of an international mafia in the Sabarimala gold theft were serious. “The government is trying to divert the attention from Sabarimala. It is trying to protect the guilty,” he said.