Vande Mataram Row: Why Congress Is Firm On 2 Stanzas As BJP Calls It ‘New Muslim League’ | Explainers News

Last Updated:August 20, 2026, 10:08 IST

Congress has made its position explicit that the full version may be Centre’s prescribed rendition at official functions, but party programmes will continue with first two stanzas.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has decided that the party will continue to sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at its programmes, reviving a 1937 resolution that has now become the centre of a fresh political storm. The decision comes amid a wider BJP-Congress confrontation that began with an alleged interruption during the full rendition of Vande Mataram at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day and has since moved into Parliament, with the Centre giving the National Song statutory protection.

The latest Congress stand also comes against the backdrop of a new protocol issued by the Narendra Modi government in February, under which the complete six-stanza version of Vande Mataram is to be sung or played at specified official functions. The Union Home Ministry’s guidelines prescribe the full version for occasions including the arrival of the President or Governor, the unfurling of the National Flag and other formal state functions. When both Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana are performed, the National Song is to come first.

The Centre’s push has acquired added significance because 2026 marks 150 years of Vande Mataram. Parliament has also passed legislation extending statutory protection to the National Song, bringing it under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act framework and making certain forms of deliberate disruption or insult punishable.

Congress has, however, made its position explicit that the full version may be the Centre’s prescribed rendition at official functions, but Congress party programmes will continue with the first two stanzas. The BJP says that amounts to disrespect. Congress says it is following a historical decision taken when the party itself was leading India’s freedom struggle.

How Did The Vande Mataram Row Begin?

The immediate political trigger was the Congress’s Independence Day programme at its headquarters in New Delhi on August 15. A full rendition of Vande Mataram was played at the event, and a video showing Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi making gestures during the rendition quickly became the focus of a BJP attack. BJP leaders alleged that Gandhi was unhappy with the continuation of the song beyond the first two stanzas and had sought to stop it.

Former BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya was among the first to target Gandhi, alleging that she appeared “agitated” after the song continued beyond the initial stanzas.

The matter soon escalated. Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused Congress of insulting the National Song and demanded an apology.

Congress rejected the allegation. Its explanation was that Sonia Gandhi had not sought to stop Vande Mataram; rather, she was trying to arrange a chair for Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was standing during the programme.

The BJP subsequently lodged a police complaint against Gandhi, further intensifying the dispute. The BJP linked the episode to Congress’s long-standing practice of singing only two stanzas, while Congress began defending the historical origins of that practice.

That eventually led to the CWC’s formal reaffirmation of the 1937 position.

Nitin Nabin’s ‘New Muslim League’ Attack

The latest escalation came after the CWC formally reaffirmed its two-stanza position.

BJP president Nitin Nabin accused Congress of converting what the BJP considers disrespect into an official party policy. “The Congress has now formalised its insult into a resolution,” Nabin said, referring to the CWC decision. He added that the party’s working committee had decided that “only the first two stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ will be sung at Congress forums.”

He then launched his most pointed attack: “The Congress has now become the new Muslim League today.”

Nabin also accused Congress of allowing its “hunger” for a vote bank to override national self-respect and said the party had repeatedly “pawned the nation’s self-respect”.

The “Muslim League” reference is not incidental. It is aimed directly at the historical circumstances surrounding the 1937 decision and the objections raised to the later verses.

Congress’s response has been to reject the suggestion that the decision was an act of appeasement and instead portray it as a freedom-era attempt to preserve the song’s place in a broad-based national movement.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has repeatedly challenged the BJP’s criticism by invoking the party’s own freedom movement history.

Kharge has specifically invoked Gandhi, Nehru and Patel in this context. “If this is a crime, file a case against Gandhi ji. If this is a crime, file one against Nehru ji. If this is a crime, then against Vallabhbhai Patel,” Kharge said while hitting back at the BJP.

What Has The Modi Government Changed?

The Union Home Ministry’s February 6 guidelines prescribe the full six-stanza version of the National Song at specified state occasions. The official document reproduces the complete lyrics and says the full rendition lasts around 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

The guidelines cover occasions such as the arrival and departure of the President or Governor at formal state functions, the unfurling of the National Flag and addresses by Governors, among other official events. The National Song is to precede the National Anthem when both are played or sung together.

The government has also moved to give Vande Mataram stronger legal protection. Parliament passed the amendment during the Monsoon Session, making deliberate insult to or disruption of the National Song a criminal offence under the amended national honour law. The legislation was presented by the government as bringing Vande Mataram on a legal footing similar to Jana Gana Mana.

This is where an important distinction needs to be made.

The new protocol governs specified official functions. It does not, by itself, mean that every private event or political party meeting is required to sing all six stanzas. Congress’s CWC resolution, meanwhile, is an internal party decision about what is sung at Congress programmes.

Why Did Congress Decide On Two Stanzas In 1937?

Written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the song became one of the most powerful cultural symbols of India’s freedom struggle. It was first published in 1875 and later incorporated into his novel Anandamath. Rabindranath Tagore famously sang it at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress.

By the early 20th century, Vande Mataram had become a rallying cry against British rule. It was associated with the Swadeshi movement and was sung by nationalists during protests and political mobilisation.

But the complete composition was not free of controversy.

The first two stanzas primarily describe the motherland – its waters, fertile fields, greenery, cool breeze, flowers and abundance. The later verses contain more explicit religious imagery and invoke the motherland through references associated with Hindu deities, including Durga.

As communal tensions sharpened in the 1930s, sections of the Muslim community and the Muslim League objected to these portions being used as a national song at gatherings meant to represent all Indians. The Congress leadership was therefore faced with a difficult question as to how could it preserve a song that had become deeply embedded in the freedom struggle while ensuring that it could function as a national symbol in a religiously diverse country.

The compromise came in 1937. The Congress Working Committee decided that only the first two stanzas should be sung at national gatherings, while organisers retained the freedom to use other unobjectionable songs as well.

The historical resolution was explicit about the reasoning. It recognised objections to some portions of the song but argued that the first two stanzas had acquired a distinct place in India’s national movement.

Mahatma Gandhi’s writings from the period also show that he viewed the question through the lens of national unity. In a 1939 note, Gandhi recalled that Vande Mataram had become “a most powerful battle-cry” during the Bengal partition movement and said he associated it with “the purest national spirit”. He also reproduced the 1937 CWC resolution, which stated: “Whenever and wherever Vandemataram is sung only the first two stanzas should be sung.”

That historical record is central to Congress’s defence today.

What Was Rabindranath Tagore’s Role?

Tagore had enormous respect for Vande Mataram and its role in the nationalist movement. But he also recognised the problem posed by the later religious imagery when the song was being considered for use at gatherings representing people of different faiths.

In a letter to Subhas Chandra Bose, Tagore argued that the issue could not simply be reduced to a Hindu-Muslim confrontation. He stressed the need for “peace, unity, good sense” in the national movement.

Tagore subsequently suggested that the first two stanzas could be separated from the rest of the composition for national use. Parliamentary records from the debate over Vande Mataram also cite Tagore’s view that while the song was appropriate within the literary setting of Anandamath, the more religious portions created a problem when the song was used in a national forum representing different religious communities.

Congress is using this history to make a broader point that the two-stanza decision was not an arbitrary attempt to “cut” a patriotic song. It emerged from a debate involving some of the most prominent figures of the freedom movement.

The BJP-Congress War Over Vande Mataram

The BJP’s argument is that the 1937 decision weakened a song that had inspired India’s freedom fighters and that Congress effectively diluted a national symbol to accommodate communal objections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously attacked the Congress’s historical handling of Vande Mataram, arguing that the song was “divided” before India itself was partitioned.

The BJP’s present argument builds on the interpretation that if Vande Mataram is India’s National Song, why should the complete composition not be respected and performed?

This is also why the Centre’s 2026 protocol matters politically. By prescribing the complete version at official functions, the Modi government has effectively moved the debate from historical practice to contemporary state protocol.

Congress, however, says the BJP is attempting to turn its historical compromise into evidence of disloyalty.

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