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Updated: Apr 27, 2018 23:38 IST

A controversy erupted on Friday after a video purportedly showing Congress president Rahul Gandhi “disrespecting” the national song Vande Mataram at a public rally in Karnataka’s Bantwal surfaced and went viral.

The video showed Gandhi sitting on the dias with senior Congress leaders, including Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and pointing to his watch gesturing something to AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka affairs KC Venugopal, apparently to wrap up quickly.

A person is then heard telling the singer to “just sing a line (of Vande Matram) and finish it off”. As the singer began singing Vande Mataram, Venugopal is seen nudging Gandhi to stand up. Seizing on this, BJP tweeted, “Today, RG asked to cut it to just one line, reminding us of INC’s total disregard for the song.”

The BJP slammed Gandhi, saying he does not have respect for the national song, a charge dismissed by the Congress as “absolutely false”.

“He (Gandhi) does not have respect for the national song. What can we expect from him?” tweeted BJP on its handle, after a local TV channel showed a brief video clip of the purported incident even as Congress dubbed it as a “fake video”.

Former union minister and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla dismissed it as “absolutely false” allegation and called it a “fake video”. “It is the work of theirs (BJP) to release fake video.Who else believes in Vande Mataram than Congress. The Vande Mataram was started to be sung from 1896 Congress session,” he told reporters in Bengaluru.