OMG! This BJP spokesperson's recital of 'Vande Mataram' will really amuse you

There seems to be no end in sight to the debates on nationalism and national symbols in the country as the leaders and activists of the ruling coalition and the opposition keep their brawl alive on TV studios as well as streets.

However, the big fight took a gut-busting turn recently and provided the Twitterati with a field day after Naveen Kumar Singh, spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was found struggling to sing Vande Mataram during a TV debate.

Singh put his party in an embarrassing position when he was challenged to sing the national song and prove his patriotism by All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Mufti Ejaz Arshad Qasmi during a debate on the Zee Salaam. The BJP has been the principal advocators of Vande Mataram, pushing to make it mandatory in various places including schools and government offices.

Singh was trolled mercilessly on social media after the video clip of his misadventure went viral both on Facebook and Twitter. The BJP leader, apparently unfamiliar with the lyrics, was seen reading the song off his mobile phone and mispronouncing most of the words.

However, this is not the first time a BJP member has found himself in a spot during a live show. A few months ago, during a debate on another channel, party leader and UP minister Baldev Singh Aulakh failed to sing the lines of the song even after he was repeatedly asked to by the anchor. 

The squabbles over the patriotic poem got murkier ever since the Narendra Modi-led BJP government came to power at the Centre with the right wing brigade becoming vociferous to impose it on the public, leading to, at least in some instances, violence.

Earlier this year, the Madras High Court delivered a key verdict making it mandatory to sing Vande Mataram in schools, colleges and other private and government institutions in Tamil Nadu. The high court order came even as the Supreme Court is still hearing a case on the constitutional status of the national song. 

The poem of devotion, penned by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875, morphed into a divisive tool in the 1930s when a section of the Muslim League leaders started questioning the idolatry in it. Following the stiff opposition from Muslim leaders against Vande Mataram, Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana was declared the national anthem with constitutional validity after the independence.