Congress, NC MP Push Back as Vande Mataram Row Deepens in J&K

A dispute over the rendition of Vande Mataram has sharpened divisions between Jammu and Kashmir's ruling National Conference (NC) and its ally, the Congress, with both the State Congress chief and an NC Member of Parliament publicly criticising Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

At the centre of the row are Mr. Abdullah's remarks that the Congress "wanted people of Kashmir to go to jail over the national song, Vande Mataram". The Chief Minister, who is also NC vice president, has said his government will follow the law on the issue.

Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief Tariq Hameed Karra described the remarks as detached from reality. He asked whether it was unreasonable to expect the Chief Minister to defend secular and inclusive values in the manner of his counterparts in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana, who have limited Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at State events.

Mr. Karra argued that the public has no role in the debate and that the onus lies with the government. Referring to Kerala's decision to sing only the first two stanzas at its Independence Day parade, he asked whether a single person there had been jailed over the choice.

The Congress supports the restricted rendition of the national song in line with a historic 1937 resolution. The party's position has been at odds with the Chief Minister's since Mr. Abdullah and his leader stood for all six stanzas at an official function in Srinagar on September 7.

Mr. Karra also sought to place on record that the first International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir 2026, titled Rang-e-Cinema, was a State event organised jointly by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, J&K, and the National Film Development Corporation, and was inaugurated by the Chief Minister. He said the presence or absence of others at the event was irrelevant and a superfluous detail meant to distract from the core issue.

Mr. Abdullah, defending his decision to stand for all the stanzas, had said it was an official function attended by Chief Justices.

Criticism also came from within the NC. Party MP Aga Syed Ruhullah said in a post on X that he had fought against the imposition of the stanzas because it was unconstitutional, and that he now saw his party having abandoned the fight and fallen in line with the BJP and the RSS in submission.

Mr. Ruhullah said minorities were being pushed to the wall and urged that the communal onslaught of the RSS and the BJP not be normalised. He said Jammu and Kashmir, as the largest Muslim-majority region in the Union of India, should be more sensitive to the religious beliefs and concerns of minorities, and that it had a historical opportunity to stand for what is right. He called the present times hard, requiring statesmanship, sensitivity and courage rather than another compromise.