On Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed a resolution emphasizing the significance of Vande Mataram, asserting that the national song should not be subject to compromise for appeasement politics. This move comes in response to the Congress party’s recent reaffirmation of its 1937 decision to perform an abridged version of the song at its events. The BJP criticized Congress for what it views as a lack of respect for the national song, highlighting the party’s commitment to uphold its legacy.
Generations of Indians carried them as a mantra of freedom, sacrifice and national pride. Because they awakened resistance, “The BJP would oppose any attempt to subject the National Song to communal pressure, political appeasement or narrow vote-bank politics… The British sought to suppress [Vande Mataram’s words].
That legacy cannot be reduced to the calculations of contemporary vote-bank politics,” BJP president Nitin Nabin said. Kharge, however, rejected the BJP’s allegation and said the Congress was following the version that had been decided by national leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
The law currently safeguards the national flag, the national anthem and the Constitution. The Centre earlier this year made the rendition of all six stanzas of the song mandatory, replacing the decades-old practice of singing the first two stanzas that had been adopted as the national song in 1950. In the recently held Monsoon session, Parliament cleared the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which makes any obstruction or insult to the national song a criminal offence, proposing a jail term of up to three years and a fine for offenders.
The party will also undertake a nationwide campaign to spread the history, meaning and national significance of Vande Mataram across the country, according to the resolution passed at the first meeting of its new office-bearers. The Congress rejected the ruling party’s charge, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accusing the BJP of indulging in “politics of polarisation”. The BJP resolved to “uphold the honour, dignity, legacy and national status of the complete Vande Mataram as the National Song of Bharat and as an immortal symbol of India’s national consciousness and freedom struggle”, according to the resolution. It added that the legacy of Vande Mataram cannot be “reduced to the calculations of contemporary vote-bank politics”, days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) decided to reaffirm its 1937 resolution on singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at party functions. “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) therefore resolves to strongly condemn and unequivocally oppose the Congress Working Committee’s decision of 19 August 2026 to reaffirm its 1937 resolution and restrict Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at Congress programmes,” the resolution said.
