Vande Mataram row: Kharge dares BJP to file case against Gandhi, Nehru; BJP hits back

New Delhi: The Congress and the BJP clashed on Tuesday over the singing of Vande Mataram, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge daring the ruling party to take legal action against former leaders Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel for having sung the same two stanzas that he recently rendered. Countering this, the BJP accused the Congress of abandoning its own traditions due to what it called “vote bank politics”.

The confrontation began after Kharge’s rendition of the song at a Congress programme in Goa drew objections from the BJP. Earlier, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s gestures during the party’s Independence Day event were also interpreted by some as a sign of discomfort with singing more than the first two stanzas.

At the heart of the dispute is a recent Union home ministry notification, issued in February, which declared all six stanzas of Vande Mataram as the official version to mark the 150th anniversary of the song’s composition. The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, passed in the monsoon session of Parliament, made rendering all six stanzas mandatory and prescribed punishment for non-compliance or disrespect.

Addressing reporters, Kharge said, “I sang Vande Mataram that Gandhi, Nehru and Patel sang, the song that Vajpayee sang as PM and that he (Narendra Modi) himself sang as CM and as PM till now. If this is a crime, then he has been doing this crime for 18 years. If this is a crime, then file a case against Gandhi, Nehru and Patel.”

The Congress chief also invoked the party’s historical role in defining national symbols. “Will BJP decide what is the national song? If there is a new government tomorrow, will it decide the national song? We did what has been going on for 90 years,” he said. He noted that the Congress had passed resolutions on the national anthem and the national song long before the BJP came into existence.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back, saying that singing all six stanzas of Vande Mataram was an integral part of the freedom struggle until the Congress, under pressure from those aligned with the Muslim League’s “divisive mindset”, curtailed it to just two stanzas. “The same mindset is on display now. Congress is abandoning its own traditions due to vote bank politics,” Prasad added.

Prasad also pointed to the role of Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India and a Congressman, in getting Vande Mataram declared the national song. He questioned the Congress’s current stance in light of that legacy.

The controversy also reflects a long-standing religious sensitivity. Some Muslim organisations have objected to singing the latter stanzas of the song, as they consider the verses to be idolatrous. This has been a recurring issue since the song’s composition in the 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.

Sources said the Congress Working Committee, scheduled to meet on Wednesday, is expected to formally clarify the party’s position on the matter. The meeting comes amid growing political tensions over the issue, with both parties seeking to claim the legacy of the freedom struggle.