DEFENCE MINISTER Rajnath Singh Monday said Vande Mataram was treated like an “extra” by Congress and that it was time for an “unbiased evaluation” of the song, asserting in the Lok Sabha that neither the song nor Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Anand Math were anti-Islam. He said they were instead a reflection of popular anger against the Nawab of Bengal and British imperial rule.

“In independent India it was said that the national anthem and the national song will get the same status. One became an inseparable part of our national consciousness, got its place in the mainstream of society and culture, was assimilated in our national symbols… that was Jana Gana Mana. But the second song was marginalised, discriminated against and mutilated. That was Vande Mataram. It was treated like

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