Bengal education minister Bratya Basu on Thursday said that the Union home ministry’s order on Vande Mataram was not meant to glorify the national song or its author, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, but an attempt to demean Rabindranath Tagore, whom the RSS and Hindutva groups were never comfortable with for his avowed secularism.

On Wednesday, the Union home ministry decreed that all six stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung before Jana-Gana-Mana when both are featured at government events. Everyone must stand when the song is sung. Stanzas three to six invoke Hindu goddesses.

“We respect Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Vande Mataram. But the way the BJP is presenting it, they actually want to demean Jana-Gana-Mana and Rabindranath. They (the BJP) do not like Rabindranath Tagore because he was a secular person who preached... for the unity of Hindus and Muslims. So, through this government order in the name of glorifying Bankim, they have actually demeaned Rabindranath,” said Basu during a news meet in Calcutta on Thursday.

He was accompanied by state finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, who claimed that the move might be an attempt to cover up Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent “Bankim da” gaffe.

Multiple BJP sources said Vande Mataram step was a masterstroke by the Modi government to woo Bengal voters at a time when Trinamool had been portraying the BJP as anti-Bengal.Basu, believed to represent the state’s educated middle class, intervened in the debate and sought to frame the narrative that the BJP had been downplaying Tagore by elevating Bankim.

“They are trying to diminish Rabindranath and elevate Bankim.... We respect Vande Mataram, we respect Bankim Chandra. But Rabindranath is deeply intertwined with the soul of the Bengali people. He was the first Indian to receive the Nobel Prize. His literature is taught across the world and he is highly revered globally. Yet, from the RSS to various Hindu communal organisations, they have never truly liked Rabindranath because of his liberal and free-thinking outlook," Basu said.

He indicated that the BJP’s so-called respect for Vande Mataram and Bankim was time-bound. “This order will remain effective for about three months. It has been done with an eye on the Bengal polls. Mamata Banerjee will take oath for the fourth time. After that, all this talk of respect and grandstanding over Bankim is likely to fade,” Basu claimed.

His colleague Bhattacharya said Vande Mataram’s first two stanzas —with natural imagery and no explicit religious references — were adopted as the national song after Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were on the same page in the country’s interest.

“Though a direct comparison cannot be made publicly, we all know that Rabindranath is far more widely accepted among Bengalis than Bankim Chandra. Bratya da certainly took that opportunity to draw the attention of the educated class by highlighting what he sees as an intention to belittle Tagore,” said a senior Trinamool leader.

The BJP tore into Basu. “Whatever Bratya Basu has said is completely unwise. Rabindranath is such a towering figure in Bengali literature that he cannot be diminished. The hypothesis of demeaning Rabindranath by glorifying Bankim is baseless,” said BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar.

BJP state chief Samik Bhattacharya accused Trinamool of divisive politics. “There was no objection from Kazi Nazrul Islam, Syed Mustafa Siraj or Syed Mujtaba Ali, the objection (to the last four stanzas) came from Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the Congress had to surrender.... Trinamool wants Muslims in Bengal to adopt the ideology of Afzal Guru instead of Nazrul Islam or Syed Mustafa Siraj...,” Bhattacharya told The Telegraph from Delhi.

The CPM asked why Trinamool was so late in weighing in on the issue and claimed the saffron camp had not uttered Vande Mataram during the freedom movement. “They have come up with this for political reasons. Amit Shah seems to believe he understands better than Rabindranath and Netaji — which can’t be accepted by people,” said CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty.

“How can we think that the BJP will respect Rabindranath or Bankim when they renamed the Netaji Subhas Chandra Dock after Syama Prasad Mookerjee? They divide even great figures for political benefit.”