A school teacher in Bihar’s Katihar district was beaten up when he refused to sing ‘Vande Mataram’ on Jan 26.
“We worship Allah & Vande Mataram means ‘vandana’ (worship) of Bharat which is against our belief. Constitution doesn’t say it’s necessary to sing it, ” primary school teacher Afzal Hussain told ANI.
The video of local residents thrashing the primary school teacher, identified as Afzal Hussain, has gone viral.
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District education officer Dinesh Chandra Dev told reporters he has not received any complaint regarding the incident. “Had we got any such information, an investigation would have been done. But till now we have not got any such complaint,” he said.
Vande Mataram, India’s national song, has sparked controversies in the past. Many Muslims say the song in Sanskrit is a hymn to the Hindu goddess Durga and it is against the tenets of Islam to sing it.
The song was written by the Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1876.
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