The move comes after the Congress Working Committee decided to retain its 1937 position of restricting party-event recitations to the song’s first two stanzas. The BJP on Saturday passed a resolution backing the full six-stanza version of Vande Mataram and announced a nationwide campaign on its history and significance.
The party said Vande Mataram was associated with the independence movement in 1947 and linked its political message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a developed India by 2047.
The BJP said it strongly opposes the Congress Working Committee decision of August 19. The party said the Constituent Assembly’s 1950 declaration and the parliamentary law passed in 2026 should guide the treatment of the National Song. The Congress Working Committee decided on August 19 that only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at party programmes. Congress said it was following the position associated with decisions taken by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1937. Congress MP KC Venugopal said after the CWC meeting that the party’s position on the recitation of Vande Mataram remained clear and that it would follow the 1937 decision. The latest dispute followed a political confrontation over an Independence Day event on August 15. Earlier reporting noted: Inside BJP’s 10-point Vande Mataram resolution: ‘No vote bank’ politics, cites Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘anti-imperialist cry’ The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday passed a 10-point resolution opposing the Congress Working Committee’s decision to reaffirm its 1937 resolution restricting the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at party programmes. Earlier reporting noted: Also Read: BJP passes resolution on ‘Vande Mataram’, condemns Congress move to sing 2 stanzas
Limiting the song to two stanzas undermines what the party describes as its historical and national significance, according to the BJP resolution. The BJP said Vande Mataram represents reverence for Bharat Mata and played an important role in India’s freedom movement. The BJP also said a party resolution cannot take precedence over the Constitution or a law enacted by Parliament. Earlier reporting noted: The party resolved to highlight Mahatma Gandhi’s description of Vande Mataram as an “anti-imperialist cry” linked to the “purest national spirit” and oppose attempts to subject the National Song to “communal pressure, political appeasement or narrow vote-bank considerations”.
The party also described it as a symbol of national consciousness. The BJP had accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party parliamentary chairperson Sonia Gandhi of speaking to each other while Vande Mataram was being performed.
