The BJP demanded an apology and accused the minister and three other dignitaries of disrespecting the national song during Monday’s inauguration of a laboratory at the Mulleria Family Health Centre. Muraleedharan rejected the criticism, maintaining that the state government’s established protocol should govern its official functions.
Gopalakrishna M., the BJP’s Badiadka mandalam president, submitted a complaint to Adhur police against Muraleedharan, Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan, MLA Kallatra Mahin and District Collector Sreedhanya Suresh. The complaint alleged that they showed disrespect by taking their seats while the song continued.
Muraleedharan said the programme schedule provided for a prayer, rather than a rendition of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram. He argued that the organisers had departed from the agreed arrangements at an event involving a facility owned by the state Health Department.
The minister said he would not accept an attempt to “hijack” a state government function. He maintained that the government followed the practice of singing only the first two stanzas of the national song at its programmes and that the same convention should have applied in Mulleria.
“I do not need anyone to teach me patriotism. I am the son of a freedom fighter,” Muraleedharan told reporters, referring to his father, former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran. He said he was prepared to face legal proceedings if the BJP pursued its complaint.
Muraleedharan distinguished between programmes conducted by local bodies and those organised by the state government. A municipality or panchayat could determine arrangements for its own events, he said, but that did not entitle it to impose a different policy at a state government function.
The dispute arose when two BJP members of the Karadka grama panchayat sang the complete six-stanza version of Vande Mataram. The panchayat, which is led by the BJP, had a role in organising the inauguration, while the health centre and laboratory fall under the state health administration.
Video footage showed the minister and several dignitaries standing for the opening stanzas. Muraleedharan, Unnithan, Mahin and the district collector subsequently sat down as the singing continued. Other participants, including MLA K. Neelakandan and District Congress Committee president P. K. Faisal, remained standing until the end.
The BJP maintained that all those attending should have remained standing throughout the rendition, irrespective of whether they personally wished to sing. Its Kasaragod district president, M. L. Aswini, criticised the conduct of the dignitaries and said the party would seek action against those involved.
Aswini also alleged that some people on the dais began talking before the song was completed. Those assertions formed part of the BJP’s criticism and have not been established as findings by any authority. The filing of a complaint does not itself establish a breach of law or protocol.
The controversy reflects disagreement over the appropriate version of Vande Mataram at official functions. The Congress-led state government has maintained that the first two stanzas should be used, while the Centre has advocated rendition of the complete song at government events.
Muraleedharan said his objection concerned the arrangements for the function rather than the patriotic significance of Vande Mataram. He asserted that he would respect the protocol applicable to central government events when attending them, just as he expected the state’s procedures to be observed at its programmes.
(The article ‘BJP complaint against Murali over Vande Mataram’ appeared first on Free Press Journal.)
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