THERE is a serious need of an in-depth probe to bring out the truth in the assertion by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha that the then Congress President Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (1937), pushed by Barrister Mohammad Ali Jinnah, agreed to withdraw some stanzas from the national song Vande Mataram since those parts might hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslims. Therefore, for decades, those later stanzas were never recited whenever Vande Mataram was sung anywhere in the country.

 

That the omission was restored later is another part of the story, all right. But it is important for the people to know what the truth has been so that they have the right and complete idea about the thought-process that dominated Indian psyche for long. For, the Prime Minister and his Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance made a concerted attack in both Houses of the Parliament on that alleged surrender of Pandit Nehru before Barrister Jinnah for a strange reason. Hence the need to bring out what the truth has been. It must be admitted that a lot of parts of the history of India’s long struggle for Independence have got mired in controversy, thanks to much distortion of facts for political reasons by people who formed the ruling class in post-Independence India.

 

The core of all those allegations is that those who were in power tried to snuff out some historical truths that they felt were unpalatable to them and unacceptable to their interests. Victims of that tendency include Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Swatantryaveer Savarkar. Even the national song Vande Mataram was not spared, as the allegation goes. When the body of such allegations has become too big to be ignored, it has become necessary to initiate a detailed investigation into history of those tumultuous times so that the subsequent generations of Indian people know the story of that time as it is -- without distortion. When the allegation about Pandit Nehru’s acquiescence in the case of Vande Mataram was made by the Prime Minister, the Congress Members of Parliament (MPs) protested vociferously and said that the Government was trying to distract national attention from real issues such as joblessness and rising costs etc, and utilising Vande Mataram issue to kick-start preparations for West Bengal legislative polls due soon.

 

Though nobody takes such allegations by the Opposition seriously, it is important that the nation must know what the truth actually is about whether some parts of Vande Mataram were deliberately withdrawn on insistence of Barrister Mohammad Ali Jinnah (who later founded Pakistan). It is, however, true that many historical documents such as personal letters, political resolutions in Congress party conventions, speeches etc show that the Congress did agree to withdraw some parts of Vande Mataram song only to stave off the so-called angry sentiments of the Muslim community, as described by Barrister Jinnah.

 

If that was really so, then it must be considered as a classic case of Muslim appeasement by the Congress party -- its current protests notwithstanding. However, the statement by Congress MP Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra says that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was not singularly responsible for the omission of certain parts of Vande Mataram, but the Congress Working Committee (CWC), too, had passed a resolution to that effect. This makes the case all the more serious -- and therefore the nation has every right to know the truth as it has been. There are reasons to believe -- or suspect -- that many such distortions affect the real story of the struggle for Independence. Hence the need for a detailed investigation. There is no need to politicalise the issue. What is actually needed is a non-partisan investigation of certain parts of the actual story. Such an investigation would serve the right national cause.