A new political confrontation has erupted in West Bengal between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), this time over two of Bengal’s most revered cultural icons, Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

The controversy was triggered after Karnataka BJP leader Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri claimed that “Vande Mataram should have been the national anthem". Kageri, a former Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, sparked a row by suggesting that India’s national anthem, Jana Gana Mana , was originally written as a “welcome song for British officials". He made these remarks at an event celebrating the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram , arguing that Vande Mataram would have been a better choice for the national anthem.

He later retracted th

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