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    EYE ON INDIA                                                          AUGUST 28, 2026      |  The Indian Eye                    6

                      Vande Mataram turns into a

               BJP versus Congress battle over

                                   patriotism and loyalty

            The battle over how India’s national song should be sung is rapidly turning into a larger

             political contest over patriotism, constitutional loyalty and the meaning of nationalism.

            OUR BUREAU
            NEW DELHI
                 ew songs in India’s political
                 history carry the emotional
            Fand symbolic weight of Vande
            Mataram. Born in the freedom move-
            ment and closely associated with the
            struggle against British rule, the song
            has long occupied a special place in
            the country’s national consciousness.
            But a political controversy over how
            much of it should be sung is now turn-
            ing the national song into something
            more contentious — a test of patrio-
            tism and loyalty.
                The immediate trigger is the
            Congress Working Committee’s de-
            cision that only the first two stanzas
            of Vande Mataram would be sung at
            party events, with the party citing its
            1937 resolution. The BJP has seized
            on the decision to accuse the Con-       Members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) stage a protest against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi over an alleged insult
            gress of appeasement and of disre-                             to India’s National Song, “Vande Mataram,” in Shimla (ANI)
            specting a song that inspired gener-
            ations of freedom fighters.       comes politically potent. Once the de-  used according to established rules   The danger for both sides is that
                Union Home Minister Amit      bate moves from the appropriate ren-  and procedures.               the debate could reduce a complex
            Shah has gone further, arguing that   dition of a national song to questions   The Congress’s response there-  historical legacy to a simple binary:
            the Congress decision repeats what   about who is patriotic and who is not,   fore seeks to move the debate away   sing the entire song and prove your
            he described as a historical mistake   Vande Mataram becomes a political   from patriotism and towards political   patriotism, or restrict its rendition and
            and linking the 1937 decision to the   loyalty test.                priorities.  Its  leaders  are  effectively   invite suspicion.
            politics  that  preceded  Partition.  He   The Congress, however, is resist-  asking  whether  the  country  should   The BJP  has political reasons
            has also praised the Narendra Modi   ing that framing. Its argument, reflect-  be debating the number of stanzas in   to  push  the  issue.  Nationalism  re-
            government’s move to make the full   ed in the statements of Congress lead-  a national song when there are eco-  mains one of its strongest ideological
            rendition of Vande Mataram part of   ers, is that there is no refusal to honour   nomic and social problems demand-  themes, and Vande Mataram provides
            official programmes.              the national song. The disagreement   ing attention.                a  powerful  historical  symbol  around
                The political message is unmis-  is over which portions should be sung   Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal   which that narrative can be built. The
            takable: for the BJP, the full song is in-  at party events and whether a histori-  has taken a similar line, questioning   Congress, meanwhile, cannot afford
            creasingly being presented not simply   cal convention should be altered.  whether BJP leaders themselves have   to allow the BJP to define patriotism
            as a cultural or historical choice but as   Himachal Pradesh minister Jagat   consistently sung all the stanzas of   exclusively on its terms.
            an expression of national commitment.  Singh Negi argued that the contro-  Vande Mataram at official or private   The result is a contest in which a
                Union Minister Rajnath Singh   versy was being manufactured to   functions  since  Independence.  His   national song has become a proxy for
            made the argument even more ex-   promote what he called “fake na-  argument is that the BJP is selectively   a much larger political battle.
            plicitly. He said that refusal to honour   tionalism” and divert attention from   using the issue for political advantage.  At one level, the argument is
            the national song could put a question   issues  such  as  unemployment,  infla-  But the BJP’s counterargument   about two stanzas versus the complete
            mark over a person’s patriotism, just   tion, farmers’ concerns and the state’s   is  equally  political:  that  the  Con-  song. At another, it is about compet-
            as refusal to abide by parliamentary   apple  economy.  He  maintained  that   gress’s decision cannot be separated   ing visions of India — cultural nation-
            law could raise questions about con-  Vande Mataram had played an im-  from the history of the national song   alism on one side and a more explicitly
            stitutional loyalty.              portant role in the freedom struggle   and the circumstances surrounding its   pluralist interpretation of nationalism
                This is where the controversy be-  but said national symbols should be   partial adoption.        on the other.

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