India, Dec. 9 -- Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday sought to rebut the charge that the ongoing discussion on the national song Vande Mataram was called by the BJP-led NDA for political benefit in the upcoming West Bengal assembly election. In his speech in the Rajya Sabha, he was reacting apparently to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's charge in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

"Those linking the Vande Mataram discussion to the Bengal polls must reconsider their understanding," Amit Shah remarked.

Priyanka Gandhi had said holding a "debate" on the national song - and focusing on why only two stanzas of the original poem were adopted - was "an insult" to freedom fighters and makers of the Constitution who had made that decision.

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