Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore’s remarks on Vande Mataram have sparked a fresh debate, with Kangana Ranaut strongly reacting to her views. While Sharmila suggested singing only the first two stanzas to respect India’s diverse religious beliefs, Kangana defended the song’s artistic and symbolic meaning, urging people to look beyond a Hindu-Muslim mindset.
Kangana Ranaut reacts to Sharmila Tagore’s remark
Kangana took to her social media and wrote, “I appreciate that Sharmila ji has spoken about her reservation about Vande Mataram, but I am shocked as an artist. How can her views on art and poetry be so limited and contrived? In any poetry or song, words are metaphors. A poet uses all kinds of imagination and draws unbelievable parallels to bring about the desirable effect.”
She added that Vande Mataram embodies the spirit of the freedom struggle and urged people to awaken their inner shakti, drawing from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Swami Vivekananda’s words. She said, “Please come out of Hindu-Muslim mindset. Even if you believe in one God, doctors also call power shakti. Let’s embrace each other like our own. I absolutely love you and don’t mind a crushing hug like you always give me.”
About Vande Mataram row
Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore has said that the nation should stick to only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram. The actress spoke with IANS on Thursday and said that the entire song may not comply with the religious beliefs of many communities in India, as they are monotheistic in nature.
She told, “My point of view is that there are many religious people who believe in one single God, not many Gods. In ‘Vande Mataram’, there is a stanza which says that many Gods are mentioned in ‘Vande Mataram’. It is difficult for those who believe in one religion to say, ‘Vande Kali, Vande Durga’. Therefore, if we take all the religious people in India together, the first two stanzas are very good.”
The Vande Mataram controversy intensified after India’s 80th Independence Day celebrations, with the two national parties, BJP and Congress, clashing over the national song’s rendition and historical interpretation. The dispute escalated after the Congress Working Committee reaffirmed its longstanding position of singing only the first two stanzas at party events, a practice dating back to 1937. BJP leaders accused Congress of disrespecting the national song, while Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge defended the party’s rendition, arguing that the same version had historically been sung by national leaders. The row also followed the full rendition of Vande Mataram at the Red Fort on August 15, a first in Independence Day celebrations.
