Office bearers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Awadh region) staged a sit-in on Thursday in front of the Vidhan Bhawan and threatened a bigger agitation, while protesting against the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s fatwa against Vande Mataram.

“National song Vande Mataram is not against any religion and should not be associated with it. It should be recited and respected,” said VHP media in-charge Ambuj Kumar Ojha.

On Wednesday, the VHP had lashed out at Jamiat for adopting a resolution asking Muslims not to recite Vande Mataram. It had also demanded a public apology from Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for “keeping silent despite the anti-national pronouncement being made in his presence”.

“This (resolution) has once again exposed the anti-national character of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind,” VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia said.

The Jamiat-Ulema-e Hind had passed a resolution at its annual meeting in Deoband on Tuesday asking members of the community not to recite Vande Mataram and supported seminary Darul Uloom’s edict, which opposes any prayer involving the song.

Meanwhile in Bareilly, the Ulema of the Barelvi sect endorsed the fatwa against the song. “We think that the fatwa issued against Vande Mataram is right because in Islam it is not permitted to worship any other God. Although we love our country, we cannot worship it,” Sajjada Nasheen of Dargahe Ala Hazrat Maulana Subhan Raza Khan said.