Chandigarh: Congress President Sonia Gandhi will not be accepted by the country if she did not sing the national song Vande Mataram, the BJP said on Sunday.
“It's not that she cannot speak or listen. Those who do not pay respect to the national song have no right to live in this country,” BJP chief Rajnath Singh said in a speech after inaugurating a party office in Chandigarh.
"We (the NDA) will make it compulsory to respect the national song along with the national anthem and national flag," Singh said.
"The BJP and the people of the country will not accept Sonia if she does not sing Vande Mataram," he said, referring to a controversy which began after the UPA chief skipped a All-India Congress Committee (AICC) function to commemorate the song’s centenary on September 7.
People wanted to know from Sonia why she did not attend the function and why she was "silent" on the issue.
"If she does not know anything, why is she in politics. There are other ways to serve the country," he said and Gandhi of “vote bank politics”.
Singh criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not attending the function. "The PM's post is not bigger than the pride and self-respect of the country," he said.
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