PTI
New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday condemned Congress for its decision to sing just two stanzas of Vande Mataram at its events and vowed to protect the dignity and the national status of the full version of the national song.
In a 10-point resolution passed at a meeting here of its office-bearers, the ruling party also said it will launch a nationwide campaign to spread the significance of Vande Mataram and reminded the Congress that a resolution of its working committee cannot override the constitutional institutions or laws of India.
The BJP will also educate and mobilise people, especially the younger generation, so that all six stanzas of the national song and its history are not forgotten, and future generations understand the sacrifices, struggles and patriotic awakening with which Vande Mataram is inseparably associated, the party resolved.
“A political compromise of 1937 cannot be elevated above the constitutional settlement of 1950 and legislation enacted by Parliament in 2026,” the BJP said.
The party asserted that it will disseminate Mahatma Gandhi’s statement in which he described Vande Mataram as an “anti-imperialist slogan” associated with the “purest national sentiment”, and expose the Congress by telling people how the national song was truncated to serve its “politics of appeasement”.
President of BJP Nitin Nabin presided over the meeting, the first since he overhauled the party’s national team on Monday, bringing in many new faces and some prominent leaders like former Union minister Smriti Irani as general secretary and former RSS functionary Ram Madhav as vice president.
Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also visited the BJP headquarters and interacted with the newly-appointed national office-bearers of the party.
“Organisational meetings are all about new ideas and perspectives aimed at strengthening the party and deepening connect with the people. Great interaction with fellow party colleagues and the new organisational team,” Modi said in a post, sharing pictures from his meeting with the party leaders.
The BJP also put out a post on X, said saying the Prime Minister shared “insights and perspectives to further strengthen the organisation and deepen its connect with the people”.
The BJP resolution came after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Wednesday decided to abide by its 1937 resolution on Vande Mataram, saying only two stanzas of the national song would be sung at all party events henceforth.
“Today, on 22nd August 2026, the Bharatiya Janata Party passed an important resolution regarding the honour and protection of the historical legacy of Vande Mataram,” Nabin said in a post on X, sharing the party’s resolution.
In its resolution, the BJP emphasised that it regards Vande Mataram as the national song of Bharat, an expression of reverence for Bharat Mata, a mantra of the freedom struggle and an immortal symbol of India’s national consciousness.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), therefore, resolves to strongly condemn and unequivocally oppose the Congress Working Committee’s decision of 19th August 2026 to reaffirm its 1937 resolution and restrict Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at Congress programmes,” it said.
The party also vowed to uphold the “honour, dignity, legacy and national status” of the full version of Vande Mataram as the national song of Bharat and as an “immortal symbol” of India’s national consciousness and freedom struggle.
“The BJP would oppose any attempt to subject the national song to communal pressure, political appeasement or narrow vote-bank politics,” Nabin said.
“No compromise on the honour and legacy of Vande Mataram will be accepted for political convenience or appeasement,” he said, adding, “This is not merely a matter concerning a political party. It concerns the honour of Bharat and the legacy of countless patriots who sacrificed for the freedom of the nation.”
Nabin said that the BJP calls upon every citizen to remember that the words Vande Mataram were once powerful enough to frighten an empire.
“The British sought to suppress them 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,” he said.
He stated that Vande Mataram, which echoed the call for freedom in 1947, would continue to resonate in the vision of a developed India by 2047.
On July 30, the Parliament passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, 2026, which grants Vande Mataram the same legal status as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana.
Under the amended law, intentionally disrupting or preventing the singing of Vande Mataram is a criminal offence punishable with up to three years of imprisonment, a fine, or both.
“It is a striking historical irony that the same Vande Mataram which the British sought to suppress for awakening resistance against colonial rule was, decades later, restricted by the Congress to only two of its six stanzas in the name of communal appeasement,” the BJP resolution noted.
The Congress once recognised the “national significance” of Vande Mataram, but subsequently yielded to “growing communal pressure”, it added.
According to sources, the BJP chief’s meeting with the national office bearers, including those newly appointed, also discussed at length the party’s strategy for upcoming assembly elections in states next year. The meeting also discussed the party’s grassroots outreach plan, sources said.
The BJP chief also held another strategic meeting attended by presidents of the party’s state units and other key office bearers.
