Taxpayers' money is being wasted: AIUDF leader Rafiqul Islam on Vande Mataram debate in Parliament

Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 8 : Reacting to the Vande Mataram debate in Parliament on Monday on the 150th anniversary of the National Song, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) leader Rafiqul Islam said that allocating 8 hours for discussion on Vande Mataram was redundant, and taxpayers' money was being wasted.
Speaking to ANI, Rafiqul Islam said, "I don't understand what has happened to our Prime Minister. There are so many important issues which need to be discussed in the Parliament, but they are not being discussed. The opposition gives important notices but there is no discussion on that. I don't understand the need to allocate 8 hours to discuss Vande Mataram. People who sing Vande Mataram continue to do so without opposition, but those who do not sing it, the Constitution does not compel them to sing it either. They are wasting the precious hours of Parliament, and taxpayers' money is being wasted."
Earlier, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took potshots at the BJP during the discussion in Lok Sabha on 150 years of Vande Mataram, saying the National Song "has always been dear to us, has always been sacred to us, and will always remain sacred to us" and asked if it is "sung in the BJP-RSS sessions or not".
Priyanka Gandhi said the Modi government wants to divert the country's attention from essential issues concerning the public and asked for the rationale for a debate on the National Song, which people deeply revere.
"There are two reasons for the debate on Vande Mataram in the House today. One, elections are coming up in West Bengal. In such a situation, our Prime Minister wants to establish his role, and second, those who fought the freedom struggle and sacrificed for the country--this government wants an opportunity to level new accusations against them. By doing this, the government wants to divert the country's attention from the essential issues concerning the public," Priyanka Gandhi said.
She alleged that the BJP indulges in "event management" and said that not accepting the decision regarding the paragraphs of Vande Mataram will amount to an insult to members of the Constituent Assembly and leaders of the freedom movement.
"You (BJP) are for the elections, we are for the country. No matter how many elections we lose, we will sit here and keep fighting you and your ideology. We will keep fighting for our country. You cannot stop us," she said.
The Congress leader accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being short on facts in his speeches and deliberately overlooking the contributions of the Congress.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers good speeches, but he is weak when it comes to facts. The way Modi ji presents facts before the public is his art. But I am a representative of the people--I am not an artist," she said.
She said PM had not properly contextualised former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's letter to Subhash Chandra Bose on Vande Matram and had not given all related facts.
The Congress leader said the government is not finding a solution to the problems of people and claimed that people BJP people are also saying in private that "centralisation of power" is damaging the country.
"In every session of the Congress, Vande Mataram is sung collectively. The question is: Is Vande Mataram sung in BJP-RSS sessions or not? By making this great mantra of the nation's soul controversial, the BJP is committing a sin, but the Congress party will not be part of this sin. This national song 'Vande Mataram' has always been dear to us, has always been sacred to us, and will always remain sacred to us," Priyanka Gandhi said.
"PM Modi said that in 1896, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore sang this song for the first time in a convention, but he did not tell which session it was. Was it a session of the Hindu Mahasabha or RSS? Why was he hesitant to say that it was Congress's session?" she asked.