Vande Mataram debate linked to Bengal polls, alleges opposition
Opposition MPs, spearheaded by Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Gaurav Gogoi, hit back at the NDA-led Centre on Monday over the “Vande Mataram” debate
Opposition MPs, spearheaded by Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Gaurav Gogoi, hit back at the NDA-led Centre on Monday over the “Vande Mataram” debate, calling it an attempt by the BJP to take advantage ahead of the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, dubbed the BJP as “rashtra-vivadi” and not “rashtravadi” (nationalists), while Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s Mahua Moitra accused the BJP’s commitment to this song is a “badly scripted comedy”.
Initiating the debate in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed India’s first PM and Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru for removing stanzas from the song, composed in the 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , and said this was done under pressure and to appease the Mohd Ali Jinnah-led Muslim League.
Hitting back at the PM, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi said, “Our Prime Minister wants to play his role in the upcoming Bengal elections. Also, it is their old habit to level charges against those who fought for freedom and made great sacrifices for the country. Your aim is to keep us hovering in the past, to keep us looking at what happened earlier because this government does not want to look at the present and the future, it has not been capable of doing so.”
She added: “Today Modi is no longer the Prime Minister he once was. It is now visible that his confidence is waning and his policies are weakening the country...”
Referring to the long history of Vande Mataram and why only the first two stanzas are used as the National Song, the Congress MP pointed out that an abridged version of Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana was made the National Anthem.“After India’s independence, in 1950, Dr Rajendra Prasad declared this song as the national song in the Constituent Assembly. Many great men were present. BR Ambedkar and along with him Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of my ruling party colleagues, was present. The same two stanzas were declared as the national song. No one issued any objection,” she added.
“Are the people in government today so arrogant that they consider themselves greater than Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Dr Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra Prasad?...”
Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi, too, criticised Modi saying: “PM Modi takes Nehru Ji’s name and Congress’ name in every debate. Operation Sindoor — Pandit Nehru Ji’s name 14 times and the Congress’s name 50 times, 75th anniversary of the Constitution — Pandit Nehru Ji’s name 10 times and the Congress’s name 26 times, President’s Address in 2022 — Pandit Nehru Ji’s name 15 times, President’s Address in 2020 — Pandit Nehru Ji’s name 20 times. I want to say with utmost humility to Narendra Modi Ji and his entire system, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to put even a single black mark on Pandit Nehru Ji’s contributions.”
Taking part in the debate, SP chief Yadav alleged that the BJP wanted to “own” Vande Mataram just as “they want to own everything as well as the stalwarts who don’t belong to them”. “The song has unified us. But these people want to divide the society... Those who didn’t participate in the independence struggle, what do they know about Vande Mataram? The truth is some people used to work as British spies,” he said.
“They are not nationalist but rashtra-vivadi people. The British used to divide and rule. Today, these people have adopted the same policy of divide and rule,” he added.
TMC’s Moitra said the debate is taking place at a time “when real unemployment among youth is over 20%, when we are choking in Delhi with average AQI over 800, when BJP is starving Opposition led states of MGNREGA funds, when session after session, we are bullied, browbeaten and stopped from raising national issues”.
She further alleged that Vande Mataram will prove how the BJP is removed from the soul and psyche of Bengal and how Maa (mother India) will never be hostage to the BJP’s narrow electoral goals. Questioning why Sangh parivar doesn’t sing Vande Mataram, she said: “The BJP’s commitment to this song is a badly scripted comedy.”
Lok Sabha members ET Muhammad Basheer and Iqra Choudhary said the stanzas were removed at the suggestion of Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose and wondered whether the two freedom fighters should be accused of Muslim appeasement.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Monday alleged that both Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remained absent from the Lok Sabha during the prime minister’s speech due to the “the sense of guilt they had in their hearts”.
