Vande Mataram row: Congress digs in, says it will stick to singing two stanzas

Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi at the meet of district presidents of AICC OBC Department at the Congress HQ in Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI) 4 min readNew DelhiAug 19, 2026 06:30 AM IST First published on: Aug 19, 2026 at 06:29 AM IST Amid the perception in the Opposition that the BJP-led NDA government is on the backfoot on several issues, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is set to meet on Wednesday. This comes at a time when the party itself is embroiled in a controversy over the rendition of Vande Mataram. With the BJP escalating its attack on the Congress over the rendition of Vande Mataram during an Independence Day event at the AICC headquarters and later at an event in Goa attended by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress has made it clear that its programmes will feature only the first two stanzas of the national song. However, a section of the Congress believes the party should tread carefully on an issue with nationalistic overtones. The issue is also likely to come up for discussion at the CWC meeting, though sources said it was not on the agenda as of now.The Congress, citing a 1937 CWC resolution, has argued that leading lights of the freedom movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, had backed limiting public rendition to the first two stanzas to avoid verses containing specific religious imagery. On Tuesday, Kharge said he sang the exact same version of the national song that leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel sang and argued that if singing that version constitutes a crime, the government should register an FIR against the late national leaders. “I sang the same Vande Mataram that Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru sang. I sang the same Vande Mataram that they have been singing for 18 years … their Central government … I sang what Vajpayee sang … If singing it is a crime, then they have been committing that crime for the past 18 years. If this is a crime, then file a case against Gandhiji, Nehruji and Vallabhbhai Patel. They are unaware of the fact that, even before they were born, the Congress had passed a resolution determining which national songs to adopt for the country. It is not the case that whatever you say becomes the national standard. Tomorrow, another government might come to power; if they say something, that becomes the rule. We have simply continued the practice that has been in place for 90 years,” said the Congress president. Karnataka Congress chief B K Hariprasad also told The Indian Express that the state unit would sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at its programmes, in keeping with the existing practice. The controversy over the national song began after Parliament, in the recently concluded Monsoon Session, passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, 2026, which makes attempts to stop or prevent the singing or playing of Vande Mataram an offence. Issues on CWC agenda The Congress, meanwhile, is also keen to project that the government has been buffeted by student unrest, alleged theft of Ram temple donations, ethanol blending and fresh reports of tension along the China border in Arunachal Pradesh. The party is now looking to work out a strategy to keep the issues alive and sharpen its political attack. The CWC meeting will be the first since the recent Jantar Mantar protests, which ended with the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister. While the party has decided to keep its distance from the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the leadership is keen to link the student unrest to the larger issue of jobs. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, is stepping up his interactions with students, with his next programme scheduled in Pune on August 22.