Shias not averse to Vande Mataram if not 'bandagi'

Lucknow, Sep 5 (UNI) The Shia community is not averse to reciting Vande Mataram on September 7, if the national song is not a 'Bandagi' (prayer) to the motherland, prominent Shia cleric Maulana Ali Husain Qummi today said.

Maulana Qummi asserted the community would not mind reciting Vande Mataram, if scholars authenticated that Vande Mataram only praised the motherland and was not a prayer.

Talking to UNI here, the acting president of 'Shia Democratic Alliance' said the tenets of Islam allowed Muslims to offer prayer to only 'Allah' and none else.

''However, if Vande Mataram is only greetings to the motherland, then the Shias have no objection to it. The national song can be sung on any occasion and accorded all respect by members of all the religions,'' the Maulana underlined.

Earlier addressing a news conference, he also criticised various political parties, including Congress and BJP, for trying to capitalise on the issue for consolidating their respective vote bank.

''This unnecessary controversy has been raked by vested interests,'' Maulana Qummi maintained.

Recently, a Varanasi-based Sanskrit scholar and linguist Vagish Shastri had said the word 'Vande' owed its origin to Sanskrit word 'Vand', and it was not borrowed from Persian word 'Bandagi' meaning prayer.

''The word 'Vande' unlike Persian word 'Bandagi' means salute or praise. No one in the country should have any problem in praising the mother,'' Dr Shastri had said.

Various Muslim organisations have opposed recitation of Vande Mataram in educational institutions on September 7 to commemorate centenary of the national song.

Meanwhile, Dr Shastri has also written to President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the controversy and asked to remove misconceptions about the national song.

UNI VS AD VA RN1719