NEW DELHI: Congress and BJP tussled over Vande Mataram Tuesday with the opposition party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge defiantly declaring Congress would restrict to only two stanzas of the national song despite a just-passed law requiring all its six stanzas to be rendered, and BJP hitting back by saying the party which curtailed the song because of Muslim hardliners should stop claiming to be the “sole custodian of freedom movement”.“I sang Vande Mataram that Gandhi, Nehru and Patel sang, the song that Vajpayee sang as PM and that he (Narendra Modi) himself sang as CM and as PM till now. If this is a crime, then he has been doing this crime for 18 years. If this is a crime, then file a case against Gandhi, Nehru and Patel,” Kharge said.BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad pointed out that singing of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram were an integral feature of the freedom struggle until Congress gave in to pressure from those with Muslim League’s divisive mindset and curtailed it to just two stanzas. “The same mindset is on display now. Congress is abandoning its own traditions due to vote bank politics,” Prasad added.Kharge’s remarks came in the wake of BJP’s objections to his rendition of the song in Goa. Earlier, MP Sonia Gandhi’s gestures during Congress’s Independence Day function also triggered accusations that she objected to the singing of the song beyond initial two paragraphs.The song has become a source of controversy since a Union home ministry notification issued in Feb mandated the song’s six stanzas as the official version to mark 150th anniversary of the composition of Vande Mataram.In Parliament’s monsoon session, the House passed Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which made singing of all six stanzas mandatory and provided for punishment for non-compliance and disrespect. Muslims have objected to the singing of the song beyond the two stanzas because they consider the rest of it to be idolatrous.
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Slamming BJP, Kharge underlined Congress had passed a resolution about national songs “before they (BJP netas) were born”, a reference to post-independence identification of Jana Gana Mana as national anthem and Vande Mataram as national song, and their official versions. “Will BJP decide what is the national song? If there is a new govt tomorrow, will it decide the national song? We did what has been going on for 90 years,” he said.Talking to reporters, Prasad said it was the first president and head of Constituent Assembly Rajendra Prasad who was instrumental in getting Vande Mataram declared national song. “He was also a Congressman,” he said.Sources said the Congress Working Committee meeting on Wednesday will clear the party’s stand on the song.
