Mainstream WeeklyWe were little kids when our parents taught us the National Anthem by heart. That’s because every time the National Anthem was played on the Radio all of us stood up and recited it together, even within the confines of our little home.
When Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India whom we little children fondly called Chacha Nehru, addressed any public meeting, he would end it with raising the slogan ’Jai Hind’ three times and we kids screamed out loudly with enthusiasm ’Jai Hind’ after him. Mrs Indira Gandhi carried on this tradition of raising the ’Jai Hindi’ slogan thrice, with the audience repeating after her with equal enthusiasm.
By the time Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister I had grown into a young working journalist, far too busy with my work and also a bit cynical to sit through the end of his public speeches to note whether he too ended with Jai Hind or not. He and after him other prime ministers too must have followed the tradition. But I would be dishonest to claim either way.
However, I don’t remember for sure late Atal Bihari Vajpayee ever raise the slogan ’Bharat Mata ki Jai’. Perhaps he too followed the tradition of ’Jai Hind’. It is only Prime Minister Narendra Modi who ends with ’Bharat Mata ki Jai’, as a true Sanghi Pracharak. I fail to understand what is their objection to ’Jai Hind’ because it simply means ’Victory to India’. Is it out of the Sanghi animus against Nehru, which Modi exhibits at every occasion. But then ’Jai Hind slogan was not coined by Nehru. It was coined by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. And this was the war cry of Azad Hind Fauj out to liberate India from the British in an armed rebellion. But this refusal to raise ’Jai Hindi’ slogan exposes Modi and the Sangh, and shows that deep inside their aversion is not limited to Nehru and his successors alone, but even Netaji.
Compare this with the Pakistani slogan on all public occasions: ’Pakistan Paindabad’. First this Paindabad is a Persian word meaning that which is forever. ’Jai Hind’ is so simple, easy to spell out and easy to remember because it directly touches the heart of all Indians Whereas this ’Pakistan Paindabad’ is very pedantic for the common illiterate masses to comprehend. And their Quaide Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, barely knew Urdu, forget about Persian. It seems Jinnah hardly trusted any Muslim’s competence to compose Pakistan’s National Anthem. He therefore assigned the task to noted Urdu poet Jagannath Azad which was apparently played on Pakistan Radio on August 14, 1947, Azad claimed. But Jinnah died in September, 1948 barely a year after the creation of Pakistan thereafter the establishment commissioned the court poet Hafeez Jallandhri to compose the Qaumi tarana (national anthem) just as we are ready to slowly discard Jana Gana, Mana.
The problem is not so much with someone choosing to sing ’Vande Matram’ but with a surreptitious Sanghi conspiracy to subvert and push the National Anthem to irrelevance. Why should the National Anthem be pushed back to a second position? Is it to slowly discard it? These Sanghis have long been averse to the National Anthem. After the 1965 war the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri made it mandatory to play the national anthem on all occasions. I remember how a recorded version of it with the National Flag fluttering on the screen, used to be played in all Cinema halls after the end of each movie show and people had to stand at attention till it ended. This order was gradually withdrawn after it was noticed that most people started sneaking out little before the movie ended to avoid standing after the show. So, Amit Shah knows that people may not have the patience to stand through the playing of all six stanzas of Vande Matram and then the national anthem. So therefore, he has pushed the national anthem to second place and thereby let the National Anthem die a slow natural death.
In August 2019 Rajasthan Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal stated at the Independence Day celebrations in Jaipur that the RSS has always been a strong opponent to both the Tricolour as the National Flag and the National Anthem as well. He even alleged at a public function that the RSS had insulted the Tricolour. He said, "When Mahatma Gandhi asked people across the country to celebrate Independence Day on January 26, 1930 and unfurl the tricolour, RSS unfurled saffron flag instead," He said, "RSS has been saying since 1925 that the National Anthem Jana Gana Mana does not inspire a feeling of patriotism like the national song does. They have been against the National Anthem and used to say openly that the National Flag should only sport the saffron colour," the minister reminded the people".
But why rely on the allegations of an Opposition (Congress) leader? The RSS general secretary Bhaiyaji Joshi, clearly stated that "Vande Mataram" is the Real National Anthem. Jana Gana Mana is merely the "constitutionally-mandated" Anthem, The Hindu reported from Mumbai, in April 2016. If one notices the subtext, it also shows that the Sanghis have scant respect for the Indian Constitution either. And therefore, a constitutionally mandated Anthem should not be given the pre-eminence of being played on all national occasions, first and foremost.
Similar aversion they have to the National Flag. A Tricolour flag (or Tiranga) features three horizontal bands of deep saffron, white, and dark green, with a navy-blue Ashoka Chakra in the center. Saffron stands for courage and sacrifice, White stands for peace and truth and Green signifies fertility and growth, while the 24-spoke wheel signifies progress and justice. This Independence Day the Sanghis started the campaign, "Ghar, ghar Tranga’" (to be accompanied by singing Vande Matram) But when the Constituent Assembly moved the resolution to adopt the Tricolour as the national flag, this is what their party organ the Organiser wrote, "This is sheer nonsense. The Saffron Flag represents the nation, and there is only one nation in Hindusthan, the Hindu Nation, with an unbroken history extending over 5,000 years. That is the nation and the flag must symbolise that nation and that nation alone. We cannot possibly choose a flag with a view to satisfy the desires and wishes of all the communities,’
After elaborating at length on the greatness of the saffron flag, ’handed down by their forebears’, the Organiser editorial concluded: "It is only the ignorant or the malicious who cannot find or appreciate this peculiar charm, nobility and grandeur in the Flag (Bhagava Dhwaj). This Flag and this alone can be the true National Flag of Hindusthan. That and that alone will be the only one acceptable to the nation. There is growing evidence of this insistent demand on the part of the public and the Constituent Assembly would be well advised to carry out their wishes."
The Organiser continued its attack on the ’Tiranga’, (National Flag) in its subsequent issues. The July 31 issue carried a ’warning’ on its front page that abandoning the Bhagwa Dhwaj would destroy the very soul of the nation. The August 7 issue reproduced V.D Savarkar’s statement against the flag in full: "How can a genuine nationalist salute such a Flag adopted by such a party (Congress) with no mandate from the nation as the National Flag? No! The authoritative Flag of Hindusthan, our Motherland and Holy land, undivided and indivisible from the Indus to the Seas, can be none other than the Bhagwa Flag to deliver expressly the message of the very being of our Race,’ Savarkar was reported by the Organiser to have completely rejected the national flag, in these words.
Recently when a reporter confronted RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat why the Sangh headquarters flew only the Bhagwa Dhwaj but refused to fly the National Falg for half a century, Bhagwat spun a yarn which Ashok Kumar Pandey of "The Credible History" exposed as false and fictitious.’
Savarkar was more direct and clear, be it the Tricolour or the National Anthem or even ’Jai Hind’ none of the Sanghis are reconciled to because their primary objective is to reduce this great country into a ’Hindu Rashtra’. They are working relentlessly towards One nation, (federalism be damned), one National Song, one Flag (the Saffron one) and one leader Narendra Modi. Unmindful of any criticism or objections, they are single minded on this mission, come what may.