The debate over compulsory singing of Vande Mataram in schools took a new turn during a TV show on India Today TV when a BJP UP minister, Baldev Singh Aulakh, was asked to sing the song himself.
Watch the video here:
Heated exchanges between anchor Rahul Kanwal and the minister of state for minority welfare ensued, and the latter ended up not singing the song.
The channel then went on to say that the minister "failed to sing even a single line of Vande Mataram" as he "was left red-faced".
The whole debate regarding the song assumed salience after the Madras High Court passed an order making it compulsory to sing it in schools and government offices last month.
This was followed by a resolution passed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seeking to make it compulsory in civic schools coming under its jurisdiction. The move was welcomed by Raj Purohit, BJP's chief whip for the Maharashtra Assembly, who has been pushing for such a directive to be implemented across the country.
Interestingly, another India Today report said that even Purohit had difficulties when asked to sing Vande Mataram, as "he could not seem to remember the sequence of the lines of the song".
Watch this video of Purohit singing Vande Mataram:
At the same time, the BJP government in UP had issued a directive asking all madrassas to have Independence Day celebrations and to record them on video.
Aulakh was particularly active as far as this directive was concerned, as he said,
We have asked for videography of all programmes. We can check at random as to which madrassa has celebrated it or not. If any madrassa does not celebrate it, action will be taken against it.
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