Speaker rejects permission for BJP men to sing National Song

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has denied permission to the request of BJP minority members to sing National Song in the precincts of Parliament on September seven.

Lok Sabha Secretariat sources said the Speaker had denied permission citing the rules governing the Parliament to 200 BJP Minority Morcha members to sing the Vande Matram, the National Song to commemorate its centenary.

However the BJP which was anticipating such an answer from the Speaker said it had received no communication from the Speaker either accepting or rejecting its request. We will go ahead with our nationwide programme to sing the national song in the state capitals, district and mandal headquarters, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asserted.

"We have anticipated such an answer right from the beginning and the BJP will go according to its plans. We have directed the state parties to organise singing of Vande Matram with full honour to commemorate the centenary of the national song,'' he said.

Last week BJP president Rajnath Singh had put up the request to the Speaker to allow BJP Minority Morcha members to sing the national song near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the precincts of the Parliament. The song written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee which inspred many freedom fighters was accorded the status of a National Song treating it on par with Jana Gana Mana, the National Anthem written Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Vande Mataram was first sung at the 1905 AICC Session at Varanasi.

BJP Spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said the party expected all sections to show their respects to the sentiments of the people to the freedom struggle by associating themselves by singing the national song for two minutes. We know 90 per cent of Muslims are with us but the government is scared of opposition by a few Ulemas in Hyderabad and Imam Bhukhari of Jama Masjid. We strongly condemn it, Mr Prasad said.

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