Congress president Rahul Gandhi is campaigning in Karnataka for the assembly election
A controversy erupted today after a video purportedly showing
Congress president Rahul Gandhi "disrespecting" the national song Vande Mataram at a rally in Karnataka surfaced. The BJP hit back at Mr Gandhi, alleging he does not respect the national song, a charge dismissed by the Congress as "absolutely false."
"He (Gandhi) does not have respect for national song. What can we expect from him," the BJP tweeted with its official handle, after a local TV channel showed a clip of the purported event even as Congress dubbed it as a "fake video".
The video shows Mr Gandhi sitting on a stage with some Congress leaders, including Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Congress in-charge of the state KV Venugopal. Mr Gandhi is seen pointing at his watch, in a gesture seen as a sign to wrap up the event.
A person is then heard telling the singer to "just sing a line (of Vande Mataram) and finish it off." As the person begins singing "Vande Mataram", Mr Venugopal is seen nudging Mr Gandhi to stand up.
Seizing on this, the BJP tweeted, "Today, RG (Rahul Gandhi) asked to cut it to just one line, reminding us of INC's total disregard for the song."
Former union minister and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla dismissed the video as "absolutely false" allegation and called it a "fake video".
"It is the work of theirs to release fake video. Who else believes in Vande Mataram than Congress. Vande Mataram started to be sung from the 1896 Congress session," he told reporters in Bengaluru.
"Each of our session starts with Vande Mataram and ends with the national anthem. They (BJP) teach us Vande Mataram? It is neither sung in their office nor in the RSS headquarters," Mr Shukla said.
The Karnataka assembly election is on May 12. Votes will be counted on May 15.
With inputs from PTI