VHP demonstration against dictum of Muslim clerics on Vande Mataram - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Activists and supporters of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a mass protest in New Delhi against Muslim clerics for issuing fatwa (legal pronouncement in Islam), asking Muslims not to sing national song "Vande Mataram" on Friday. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind passed the fatwa on Vande Mataram during its 30th general session held at the Islamic seminary in Deoband on Tuesday (November 3) by contending that some of the verses of the song are against the tenets of their religion. Carrying placards and shouting slogans, the agitated right wing Hindu activists of the VHP also burnt an effigy. The VHP activists demanded that Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram and Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who were present at the Deoband convention should apologise. Chidambaram, however, had denied his presence at the function when the fatwa was endorsed. "Our demand is that Muslim clerics should take back their irresponsible and anti-national step and P Chidambaram (India's interior minister) and Ramdev (Indian yoga guru) both should apologised to the country because this is against the constitution," said B L Sharma, a former parliamentarian and a leader of VHP. Some Muslim groups also say singing the national song "Vande Mataram" would be against Islam because it had strong connotations of Hindu deity worship as it reveres India as a holy goddess. Vande Mataram written by Bankim Chandra Chatterji was expected to become the national anthem when Indian became independent in 1947. But objections by Muslims resulted in another song, Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak Jaya He, written by Rabindranath Tagore becoming the anthem.