Kerala school forced to drop 'Vande Mataram' from I-day eve fete

Kollam: A radical outfit allegedly forced a private school here to abandon rendering of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ during the Independence Day-eve celebrations, claiming it would hurt the religious sentiments of certain sections of students.  According to school management sources, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a fundamentalist outfit having some pockets of influence in the area, yesterday gave a letter to the authorities of TKM Centenary Public School at Karicode insisting on avoiding rendition of “Vande Mataram” as part of the celebrations. The organisation allegedly told the school authorities that singing ‘Vande Mataram" would hurt the religious sentiments of certain sections and threatened that if its demand was not followed there would be “dangerous consequences”, they said today. Fearing trouble, the school authorities dropped the singing of the national song but the issue sparked protests from youth organisations of various parties. Police said no case has been registered so far but the details of the incident were being gathered. PTI