Hyderabad, Aug. 22 -- Vishwa Hindu Raksha Parishad (VHRP) National Mahila President Yamuna Pathak has criticised veteran actress Sharmila Tagore over her recent comments on Vande Mataram, arguing that Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's composition should not be viewed primarily through a religious lens.

Pathak said Tagore, as a "daughter of Bengal", should remember the role the song played during the 1905 anti-partition movement in Bengal and its association with India's freedom struggle.

She also argued that references to Hindu deities in the poem can be understood as poetic metaphors rather than instructions for religious worship.

"Actress Sharmila Tagore, wife of late Mansoor Ali Khan Patodiji, must stop viewing Vande Mataram through a ...