New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday (December 11) saw heated exchanges between the treasury benches and the opposition during Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief J.P. Nadda’s closing speech at the end of the discussion on the national song Vande Mataram.

Leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge asked the treasury benches if the discussion was on Vande Mataram or on former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, as Nadda – like other BJP members and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself – devoted much of his speech to criticising Nehru.

While Nadda said that the objective of the discussion was not to discredit Nehru but “set the record straight” on history, at the end of his speech he called for the national song to be given the same status as the national anthem.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh then rose to say that the two have already enjoyed the same status since 1950.

“Is this debate on Nehru or Vande Mataram? Vande Mataram discussion is based on distorted versions. He is constantly talking about Nehru,” said Kharge towards the end of Nadda's speech.

By then Nadda had devoted a majority of his almost hour-long speech to attacking Nehru for not choosing Vande Mataram as the national anthem, following a policy of ‘appeasing Muslims’ and ‘fragmenting the national song’.

“I am only talking about Vande Mataram,” Nadda responded.

“If Nehru's words are hurting them, then what can we do? The problem is, right from the very beginning, India's culture and ethos were compromised.”

Earlier, Nadda referred to Ramesh's speech on Wednesday – in which he said that the only aim of the Vande Mataram debate was to defame Nehru – and said that the objective was not to defame the former prime minister but to set the record straight on history.

“Our objective is not to discredit the former prime minister. Our objective is to set the record straight about history. When any incident takes place, the chief is responsible. And the Congress's chief was Jawaharlal Nehru,” he said.

“When it suits you, you talk about the Nehruvian age, when it doesn't, you bring in Subhash Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore.”

In his speech on Wednesday, Ramesh had pointed to historical records to show that it was not Nehru but Nobel laureate poet and author Tagore who had recommended that only Vande Mataram’s first two stanzas be used as the national song.

Nadda however said that since Nehru headed the Congress then, he needs to be held responsible.

“If you take credit for achievements, then you also have to take responsibility for the pains that the country felt. The respect and status that Vande Mataram was to be accorded, it did not receive, and those in power at the time are fully responsible,” he said.

While Nadda sought to conclude his speech by calling for Vande Mataram to have the same status as the national anthem and the national flag, the Congress pointed out that it has already enjoyed this status since 1950.

“The country is not run by making compromises. It is governed by unconditional national sentiments. For this reason Vande Mataram is linked to our nationalism. A meaningful discussion on the 150th anniversary can take place only if we resolve that Vande Mataram has the same status as the national anthem and national flag,” said Nadda.

Ramesh then rose to say that this was always so and former President Rajendra Prasad had affirmed this on January 24, 1950.

“This was already decided by the Constituent Assembly, that the national anthem and the national song will have the same status,” he said.

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