Facing discontent among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, their anti-government protests, and a reinvigorated Congress, the BJP and Narendra Modi’s government are clinging tightly to Vande Mataram. Almost daily now, they have begun questioning Congress’s patriotism and loyalty to the country, saying the party has turned into a “new Muslim League.” They say Congress’s stance on singing Vande Mataram has once again proven that, behind the guise of secularism, the party has never abandoned its politics of appeasement.
It is clear that the BJP wants to fight its coming political battles by clinging to the same politics of religious polarization and Hindu nationalism that first brought it to power a decade and a half ago.
Congress itself has handed the BJP this opportunity. At a meeting of the Congress Working Committee last Wednesday, the party decided that it would sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at party programs and events — not the entire song.
Congress leadership has also explained this decision. They say that at a 1937 meeting of the Congress Working Committee in Kolkata, after consulting with Rabindranath Tagore, top leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel decided that only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung.
After independence, at the Constituent Assembly’s final meeting on January 24, 1950, Vande Mataram was given the status of the “national song,” with a declaration that it would receive equal honor to the national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana.”
Recounting this explanation, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said that, in line with those two historic decisions, Congress has decided that only the first two stanzas will be sung at party programs and events. Congress leaders say the national anthem and national song are, for Congress, a matter of deep emotion, and that the BJP is trying to make political capital out of this for its own party interests.
BJP’s allegation, Congress’s argument
Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay wrote Vande Mataram on November 7, 1875. To mark the song’s 150th anniversary on November 7, 2025, the BJP has undertaken various programs nationwide over the past year.
During this year’s monsoon session of parliament, marking the occasion, the Modi government passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill. Under that bill, the national song was given legal protection equivalent to the national anthem. Under this new amendment, deliberately obstructing the singing of the song or disrespecting it carries a provision of up to three years’ imprisonment.
It has also been stipulated that the song must be sung in full at government events. The song, written by Bankimchandra, has a total of six stanzas. Under the new law, singing all six stanzas has been made mandatory.
In the song Vande Mataram, the country is compared to a mother. The first two stanzas describe the motherland’s natural beauty. But the subsequent stanzas mention Hindu goddesses such as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. The Muslim League objected to this at the time.
Taking that objection into account, Subhas Chandra Bose wrote a letter to Rabindranath Tagore. It was Tagore who advised singing only the first two stanzas, since those two stanzas are patriotic and universally acceptable, while the later stanzas carry religious references.
Last Saturday, on Independence Day, Vande Mataram was sung in full after the national flag was hoisted at Congress headquarters. But in some videos, Sonia Gandhi can be seen saying something to party workers while the later stanzas were being sung. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was standing beside Sonia. Rahul Gandhi was a short distance away.
The BJP has been vocal about that video, which circulated on social media. They have kept raising questions: why was Sonia fidgeting, why was Kharge talking, why didn’t they honor the national song? They have begun questioning whether Congress leaders’ discomfort or objection regarding the country’s cultural consciousness, heritage and sense of nationhood stems from a politics of appeasement.
At a Congress event in Goa last Monday, again in Mallikarjun Kharge’s presence, only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram were sung. At that event too, Kharge explained why they would sing only the first two stanzas at party events.
BJP leaders have increasingly been saying that, for Congress, Muslim objections have always taken precedence over national sentiment, and that this continues even now. Union Home Minister Amit Shah of the Hindutva-aligned BJP government has said Congress’s decision is astonishing and anti-national. He said the party’s Muslim-appeasement policy was the cause of Partition, and that they are still pursuing that same politics of appeasement — even as Narendra Modi, he said, is trying to correct that historical error and establish national unity.
In the words of Hindutva leader Shah, Congress is not merely disrespecting Bankimchandra. It is also insulting those who died, and those who went to prison, while singing Vande Mataram.
The BJP has not stopped at merely raising questions — it has also demanded that Congress leaders apologize. Some have even filed complaints against Congress leaders under the new law. The controversy continues.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report