Assam CM orders action after Congress leader sings Tagore’s song, the Bangladeshi anthem, in meeting

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that he has ordered the police to take action against a Congress leader in the state who sang Rabindranath Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla song, a part of which is also Bangladesh’s national anthem, during a party meeting.

The chief minister ordered the police to register a case of treason, PTI reported.

The song Amar Sonar Bangla, or my golden Bengal, was written by Tagore in 1905 during the Partition of Bengal by the British. The first 10 lines of the song were adopted by Bangladesh as its national anthem in 1971.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party had on social media shared a video of Congress leader, identified as Bidhu Bhushan Das, singing a couple of lines of Amar Sonar Bangla at the party's Seva Dal meeting in Sribhumi district earlier this week.

The video posted by the BJP also quoted Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi pointing out that the song by Tagore had given the Bengali people “the courage to rise against the British”.

In response, Assam BJP said on social media that Gogoi was “shamelessly” justifying the recitation of the song. “In fact, calling it shameful would be too mild, it’s downright pathetic and disgraceful,” the Hindutva party said.

On Wednesday, Sarma alleged that the “district Congress committee of Sribhumi” had sung...

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