Shah Calls Congress's Two-Stanza Vande Mataram Move 'Anti-National'
Amit Shah attacks Congress for singing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram, calling it anti-national and vote-bank politics.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has sharply criticised the Congress Working Committee's decision to sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at party programmes, calling it "astonishing" and "anti-national."
In a video clip posted on X, Shah said the decision confirms the Congress's "policy of vote-bank appeasement" and violates the law enacted by Parliament on the rendition of the full national song.
Shah linked the decision to a 1937 Congress resolution, which he claimed divided the song and laid the groundwork for the two-nation theory and the eventual partition of the country. He contrasted this with the Narendra Modi government's move to give legal form to singing the complete song at all government functions, particularly in the 150th year of its composition.
"For vote bank appeasement, they have not only insulted the immortal work of the late Bankim Babu, but also millions of martyrs who went to the gallows for the country's independence while chanting Vande Mataram," Shah said.
He appealed to the public to unite against the decision, asserting that "politics of appeasement will no longer work in this country." The BJP, he said, strongly condemns the move and will oppose it publicly and in legislative assemblies.
Separately, BJP president Nitin Nabin accused the Congress of formalising an "insult" to the national song into a resolution. Referring to a recent row over an individual's conduct at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day, Nabin said the party had earlier dismissed it as a coincidence but has now made it policy. He described the decision as contempt for martyrs and claimed the Congress has "become the new Muslim League of today."