Gandhinagar: The monsoon session of the Gujarat assembly got off to a chaotic start on Wednesday, with the ruling BJP alleging that Congress MLA Imran Khedawala disrespected Vande Mataram by remaining seated during its rendition. Khedawala countered the claim, stating that he was standing “until the original version got over” and that he took his seat during the rendition of stanzas “that the BJP has added”.Minister Pravin Mali stated that there was a tradition of opening the session with Vande Mataram and accused Khedawala of insulting the national song. “We demand an answer from Congress for this insult. They should clarify whether this is Khedawala’s personal stance or the party’s official stand,” he said. He demanded that Khedawala apologise for his conduct.Other BJP leaders also demanded an apology from Khedawala for what they termed “insult to the country”.Vejalpur MLA Amit Thaker said, “Khedawala has insulted Vande Mataram, and this cannot be tolerated. The speaker must be contemplating some action against the Congress MLA.”However, Congress’s whip in the assembly, Kirit Patel, rejected the allegation, and said Khedawala remained standing during the rendition of Vande Mataram. “It is incorrect to say that he did not stand up. He did. He was right behind me,” he said.Patel further said he did not know whether Khedawala sat down “a minute or two early”. “But the claim that our member did not stand up during the rendition of the national song is completely false,” he said. He added that, much like the attempts being made at the Centre to malign Congress, some BJP members in the assembly are also in the habit of levelling such allegations.Khedawala clarified that he stood for the original section of the national song. “I remained standing for the portion of the song that Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and Rabindranath Tagore had endorsed since 1937. I sat down during the stanzas later added by the BJP as a mark of protest, because I do not subscribe to the BJP’s ideology,” he said.He explained that even national Congress leaders have objected to the stanzas added by the BJP on grounds that BJP leaders are not greater than Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel or Babasaheb Ambedkar. Khedawala, who represents the Jamalpur-Khadia seat in Ahmedabad, is the lone Muslim MLA in Gujarat.
