By Gyan Pathak
Is it an insult of the Vedas to sing only Gayatri Hymn, which is considered by many the most sacred of the hymns of the Vedas in Hinduism? Certainly not. In the similar vein, singing only two stanzas of the Vande Mataram, which remained the national song since 1937 and adopted as such by the nation in 1950, is also not an insult to the larger six stanza song.
Nevertheless, the BJP led government to show themselves even more nationalist and patriotic than the leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel, and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, made it mandatory to sing all six stanzas as national song in the early 2026. BJP leadership even got a legislation named Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill 2026 passed in the parliament in the recently concluded Monsoon Session, which has now become an act, which makes any obstruction or insult to the national song a criminal offence, proposing a jail term of up to three years and a fine for offenders.
It should be noted that BJP’s parent organisation RSS did not participate in the “Quit India Movement” and they did not even hoist national tricolour flag at their Nagpur headquarters for decades. They have started hoisting it since last few years, and showing themselves more patriotic than any other organisation including Congress which led the freedom movement of the country. Now the RSS family is trying to brand Congress and its leaders anti-national on the ground that they are insulting the national song.
BJP’s working committee’s resolution passed on August 22, 2026 against the Congress is more serious. It was the first meeting of the newly constituted BJP’s working committee under the presidentship of Nitin Nabin, which was also addressed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It is worth recalling here that all six stanzas of the Vande Mataram song was sung for the fist time during August 15, Independence Day celebrations. On the same day, the BJP alleged that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi prevented the singing of the song beyond the first two stanzas, and Delhi police has also registered an FIR. The Congress Working Committee on August 19, 2026, decided and affirmed that it will stick to the 1937 resolution of the Congress to sing its first two stanzas at all programmes of the party.
The new BJP’s resolution of August 22 has resolved to honour the legacy of Vande Mataram and said it would not allow the national song to be compromised for appeasement policy of the Congress. Party has also decided tot undertake a nationwide campaign to spread the history, meaning, and national significance of Vande Mataram across the country.
BJP resolved to “uphold the honour, dignity, legacy and national status of the complete Vande Mataram as the National Song of Bharat and as an immortal symbol of India’s national consciousness and freedom struggle”. I also said that the legacy of the national song cannot be “reduced to the calculations of contemporary vote-bank politics”.
BJP’s resolution read, “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) therefore resolves to strongly condemn and unequivocally oppose the Congress Working Committee’s decision of 19 August 2026 to reaffirm its 1937 resolution and restrict Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at Congress programmes.”
The resolution also stated that the party plans to “expose before the people of Bharat the historical and political context in which the truncation of Vande Mataram took place, including the objections raised by the Muslim League and the subsequent politics of communal and separatist demands”.
BJP president Nitin Nabin said, “The BJP would oppose any attempt to subject the National Song to communal pressure, political appeasement or narrow vote-bank politics… The British sought to suppress because they awakened resistance. Generations of Indians carried them as a mantra of freedom, sacrifice and national pride. That legacy cannot be reduced to the calculations of contemporary vote-bank politics.”
Congress on the other hand has rejected BJP’s allegations. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused BJP of indulging in “politics of polarisation.” He said that the Congress was following the version of the national song decided by our national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
Kharge said, “If you read the history, you would know. Pandit Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vallabhbhai Patel all together decided to reduce it from six to two stanzas, stating that it is better for the country. In 1937, we still had not got freedom, all of them decided together, and all of us have been following it for 90 years now.”
The posturing of the BJP is clearly against the Congress, and all other political parties, who want to stick to singing the first two stanzas, which remained the national song since 1950 to 2025. Six stanza “national song” has come now in 1926, because the BJP leadership wanted Hindu votes polarisation in their favour. It is clearly a divisive politics of the BJP, and does not prove that BJP or RSS family are more patriotic and nationalist than leaders of other political parties of Independent India. Nationalists and patriots have defended the nations even when RSS family or BJP leaders were not in the helm of affair of the nation, and even when they did not participate in the freedom movement or even when they opposed the national flag in their offices, and hoisted Bhagva flag.
Singing two stanzas of the Vande Mataram symbolized the politics of the national unity of the Congress, while making not singing all the six stanzas an offence is a divisive politics of the BJP. Rejection of two-stanza national song by BJP leadership and enforcing six-stanza national song legally binding is nothing but communal politics, not necessarily national politics or patriotism. (IPA Service)
BJP must stop dividing nation on Vande Mataram for divisive politics
