Vande Mataram: Congress asks allies to stick to two-stanza version adopted by freedom fighters

Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal on Tuesday urged the party's allies to follow its position of singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, saying the full version of the song sits uneasily with the “syncretic and pluralist ethos” envisioned by the freedom movement.

His remarks came a day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah stood through a full rendition of the song at the inaugural International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar. The event was held at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre on Monday (September 6).

The National Conference is a constituent of the INDIA bloc, and the Congress supports the NC-led government in Jammu and Kashmir. The contrasting positions have brought to the fore differences within the Opposition alliance over the rendition of the song.

Tagging a video of the Srinagar event on X, Mr. Venugopal said the Congress continued to regard the judgment of several prominent freedom fighters on the issue as “paramount”.

“For us, the considered judgment of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Acharya Narendra Dev, Maulana Azad, Sarojini Naidu and J.B. Kripalani — shaped in no small part by the counsel of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore — remains paramount,” he said.

“With respect and humility, we would like our allies to honour the wisdom and judgment of our freedom fighters, and stand with us in singing only the version of this beautiful and historic song that they adopted. That version was chosen deliberately, to keep the song from being communalised — a threat as real today as it was then,” Mr. Venugopal added.

The full version of Vande Mataram sits uneasily with the syncretic and pluralist ethos that our freedom fighters envisioned and nurtured for India.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) had reiterated the position of the party's 1937 resolution on August 19, which said only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram should be sung at national gatherings. The decision followed consultations among Congress leaders and Rabindranath Tagore, who had advised that the first part of the song, with its invocation of the beauty and abundance of the motherland, be adopted.

At the Srinagar event, however, the Abdullahs remained standing through the complete rendition, which lasted more than three minutes, before the national anthem was played.

The episode has opened a fresh faultline within the INDIA bloc over the interpretation of a song that was an important symbol of the freedom movement but has long been contested over its later religious imagery.