Arguments on national song, anthem unfortunate: Siddharth Nath Singh

Lucknow: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday slammed the opposition for politicising the national song and the national anthem and asked rival parties to develop patriotic sentiment.

Dubbing arguments over the national song and anthem as unfortunate Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh said such themes bind the nation and must not be subjected to derogation or ridiculed.

"It is unfortunate that we are having arguments on national song and national anthem in this nation. These are few aspects which bind the nation as one. I would like to urge the political parties politicising such issues to bring some sense of patriotism in their thinking," said Singh.

"It is very shameful that people are drawing communal lines around such topics. I would like to urge to these political parties that you have many issues to raise your political stature, so don`t be so bank corrupt, so as to demean or undermine nationalistic issues," he added.

A week after the mayor of Meerut asked all corporators to either sing Vande Mataram or leave the country, BJP councillors at the Allahabad Nagar Nigam yesterday demanded that a new rule is passed under which the House proceedings would start with the national song Vande Matram and end with the national anthem Jana Gana Mana.

Some councillors objected to the proposal and it led to ruckus and disruption of the proceedings of the House.Councilors in the Opposition alleged that BJP Councillors are raising this demand because of BJP coming to power in the state.