Shivamogga BJP MLA walks out over truncated Vande Mataram at official event
Shivamogga BJP MLA S.N. Channabasappa walked out of a district administration event after Vande Mataram was sung in only two stanzas.
A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator walked out of an official programme in Shivamogga on Tuesday after the national song, Vande Mataram, was rendered in only its first two stanzas.
S.N. Channabasappa, the MLA from Shivamogga, was presiding over the International Day of Democracy event held at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Bhavana. Deputy Commissioner Prabhulinga Kavalikatti and other senior district officers were present.
The programme opened with the Naadageethe and Vande Mataram. The MLA objected to the national song being cut short and asked that it be sung in full. He then left the venue, saying he would not be part of a programme where the song was truncated.
Officials explained that the event had been organised in line with a State government order that restricts the singing of Vande Mataram at State functions to its first two stanzas.
Leaders of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, including State convener M. Gurumurthy, were in the audience. They said the officers had followed the recent government directive and remarked that the MLA's walkout amounted to an insult to democracy.
Shivamogga District Congress Committee president H.C. Yogesh condemned the legislator's action. He questioned whether the MLA could sing the full song and said the walkout showed disrespect for democracy and the Constitution, adding that the BJP had historically opposed the Constitution and its architect, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.