Congress Party Says Vande Mataram Must Be Respected By All Indians

The Congress party Friday said 'Vande Mataram', around which a controversy has arisen after a Muslim clerics organisation endorsed a fatwa (decree) against it, should be respected by all Indians. A day after Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid hit out at Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind which asked Muslims not to recite 'Vande Mataram', Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said endorsement of the fatwa against 'Vande Mataram' is the view only of 'some organisations' and 'not the opinion of the whole community'. Khurshid, while slamming Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Thursday, said: 'This country has enough problems and some people only want to create more.' Meanwhile, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) burned Home Minister P. Chidambaram's effigy for addressing the national convention of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind at the Dar-ul-Uloom seminary at Deoband where the clerics passed their resolution against 'Vande Mataram'. The outfit also submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil, demanding a ban on the seminary for the 'anti-national acts of the body' and apology to the nation by the home minister 'for endorsing the resolution.' The VHP's national adviser B.L. Sharma 'Prem' alleged that the fatwa against 'Vande Mataram' would boost the morale of the separatists and anti-nationals of the country. The Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind Tuesday supported a decree of the Deoband seminary against 'Vande Mataram' on the grounds that some of its lines were 'against the religious principles of Islam'.