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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hoists the National Flag at party headquarters on 80th Independence Day, in presence of CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other./ANI Video Grab
Sumitro Chatterjee, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, has sought an unconditional apology from Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi over an alleged incident at the AICC headquarters on Independence Day, where he claimed there was discomfort and repeated attempts to stop the singing of the full version of "Vande Mataram".
In a letter to Gandhi, Chatterjee said the alleged incident on August 15, as the country celebrated its 80th Independence Day, was "not merely unfortunate but a shameless repetition of a historical mistake."
Chatterjee, the BJP MLA from Naihati, said he was writing as an ordinary citizen, a patriot, and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, expressing "deep pain, emptiness, and anger" over the episode.
Invoking Sri Aurobindo's remarks that the mantra had initiated the nation into the "religion of patriotism", Chatterjee said the alleged reluctance to fully recite "Vande Mataram" on free India's soil was an insult to the sacrifices of martyrs such as Khudiram Bose. -- PTI
