Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s newly formed team under national president Nitin Nabin at the party headquarters in Delhi.
PM Modi arrived at the BJP headquarters on Saturday evening, shortly after the party passed a resolution on the honour and historic legacy of 'Vande Mataram' and announced a nationwide campaign to raise awareness about the National Song's history and significance.
Deep Dive
What is the significance of Vande Mataram according to the BJP's recent resolution?
Why did the BJP oppose the Congress Working Committee's decision regarding Vande Mataram?
How does the BJP plan to raise awareness about Vande Mataram?
The Prime Minister was greeted by party president Nitin Nabin. In a video shared by the news agency ANI, Modi and Nabin can be seen posing with the entire team of office-bearers who were recently named to various posts.
The 65-member team announced on August 17 comprises 51 new faces, including Kavita Patidar, K Surendran, Manoj Tigga, and Sandeep Pathak. In the overhaul, key names that were given responsibilities include former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje and former Union minister Smriti Irani.
Nitin Nabin's youth push
In a meeting with the new team earlier in the day, BJP chief Nitin Nabin asked the newly appointed office-bearers to prioritise “Yuva Samvad”, or continuous engagement with young people.
{{/usCountry}}In a meeting with the new team earlier in the day, BJP chief Nitin Nabin asked the newly appointed office-bearers to prioritise “Yuva Samvad”, or continuous engagement with young people.
{{/usCountry}}According to a report by India Today, the BJP plans to launch major youth outreach initiatives in the coming days. Discussions focused on devising an effective campaign to reach people aged 14 and above.
The party has begun constituting dedicated teams comprising senior leaders from across the country. The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha has been tasked with helping form and mobilise these teams.
Former national office-bearers will also be given a key role in the outreach programme, the report added.
The Vande Mataram resolution
BJP on Saturday passed a resolution opposing the Congress Working Committee’s decision to reaffirm its 1937 resolution and restrict the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at party programmes, while seeking to uphold the National Song’s historical legacy.
The resolution stated that the legacy of the National Song cannot be “reduced to the calculations of contemporary vote-bank politics.”
A statement issued by the party said it regards Vande Mataram as the National Song of Bharat, an expression of reverence for Bharat Mata, a mantra of the freedom struggle and an immortal symbol of India’s national consciousness.
The party 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… To affirm the constitutional and statutory status of Vande Mataram as established by the Constituent Assembly’s 1950 pronouncement and reinforced by Parliament’s 2026 amendment extending statutory protection to the National Song equivalent to that accorded to the National Anthem,” the resolution said.
Lashing out at the Congress for refusing to sing all stanzas of the National Song, the BJP said it will reject every attempt to subordinate the National Song to communal pressure, political appeasement, or narrow vote-bank considerations.
The CWC earlier decided to abide by its 1937 resolution on Vande Mataram and sing only two stanzas of the National Song, instead of its full rendition, at all party events.
“…To remind the Congress that a resolution of its Working Committee cannot override the constitutional institutions or laws of the Republic of India, and that a political compromise of 1937 cannot be elevated above the constitutional settlement of 1950 and legislation enacted by Parliament in 2026….To expose before the people of Bharat the historical and political context in which the truncation of Vande Mataram took place, including the objections raised by the Muslim League and the subsequent politics of communal and separatist demands,” the resolution said.