Stoutly defending her dancing at the Rajghat early on Monday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said here on Tuesday that the Congress party did not like ‘desh bhakts' (patriots) like her dancing to the tune of ‘rashtra bhakti' (patriotic) songs.
Stung by criticism, and even demands that she resign her constitutional position as she had committed national sacrilege by dancing at the last resting place of the Mahatma during the 24-hour ‘dharna' of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders at the Rajghat, she said: “They [the Congress leaders] do not like `rashtra bhakti' songs.. They object to the singing of Vande Mataram too .. I will dance everywhere and anywhere to the tune of national patriotic songs.”
Refusing to accept the criticism that the Rajghat, where in 1948 the Mahatma's funeral pyre was lit after he was assassinated, was not the place to dance to any tune, patriotic or not, Ms. Swaraj described the comments of Congress leaders calling the BJP a “nachiya party' (a dancing party) as distasteful.
She refused to apologise, as demanded, or accept that it was wrong and disrespectful to the Father of the Nation to dance to any tune at his ‘samadhi.'
Hitting out at the Congress for what she said were “low level” comments against her, she said, she was ready to show video clips of Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Sheila Dikshit dancing on various occasions.
She charged the Congress with trying to distract public attention from the main issue of corruption and the lathi charge at the Ramlila grounds. Describing the events at the Rajghat, she said: “Early on Monday morning, some youthful leaders of the BJP started singing some patriotic songs. When they sang Yeh desh hai veer jawanon ka… (This is a country of brave young people), some youngsters started clapping and swinging. I too got up and danced with them. What is wrong with that? Mahatma Gandhi's soul would have been pleased that I danced to that tune.”
Stung by criticism, and even demands that she resign her constitutional position as she had committed national sacrilege by dancing at the last resting place of the Mahatma during the 24-hour ‘dharna' of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders at the Rajghat, she said: “They [the Congress leaders] do not like `rashtra bhakti' songs.. They object to the singing of Vande Mataram too .. I will dance everywhere and anywhere to the tune of national patriotic songs.”
Refusing to accept the criticism that the Rajghat, where in 1948 the Mahatma's funeral pyre was lit after he was assassinated, was not the place to dance to any tune, patriotic or not, Ms. Swaraj described the comments of Congress leaders calling the BJP a “nachiya party' (a dancing party) as distasteful.
She refused to apologise, as demanded, or accept that it was wrong and disrespectful to the Father of the Nation to dance to any tune at his ‘samadhi.'
She charged the Congress with trying to distract public attention from the main issue of corruption and the lathi charge at the Ramlila grounds. Describing the events at the Rajghat, she said: “Early on Monday morning, some youthful leaders of the BJP started singing some patriotic songs. When they sang Yeh desh hai veer jawanon ka… (This is a country of brave young people), some youngsters started clapping and swinging. I too got up and danced with them. What is wrong with that? Mahatma Gandhi's soul would have been pleased that I danced to that tune.”
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