NEW DELHI: Congress and BJP tussled over Vande Mataram Tuesday with the opposition social gathering’s president Mallikarjun Kharge defiantly declaring Congress would limit to solely two stanzas of the nationwide track regardless of a just-passed regulation requiring all its six stanzas to be rendered, and BJP hitting again by saying the social gathering which curtailed the track due to Muslim hardliners ought to cease claiming to be the “sole custodian of freedom motion”.“I sang Vande Mataram that Gandhi, Nehru and Patel sang, the track that Vajpayee sang as PM and that he (Narendra Modi) himself sang as CM and as PM until now. If it is a crime, then he has been doing this crime for 18 years. If it is a crime, then file a case in opposition to Gandhi, Nehru and Patel,” Kharge mentioned.BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad identified that singing of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram had been an integral characteristic of the liberty wrestle till Congress gave in to strain from these with Muslim League’s divisive mindset and curtailed it to simply two stanzas. “The identical mindset is on show now. Congress is abandoning its personal traditions as a result of vote financial institution politics,” Prasad added.Kharge’s remarks got here within the wake of BJP’s objections to his rendition of the track in Goa. Earlier, MP Sonia Gandhi’s gestures throughout Congress’s Independence Day perform additionally triggered accusations that she objected to the singing of the track past preliminary two paragraphs.The track has develop into a supply of controversy since a Union house ministry notification issued in Feb mandated the track’s six stanzas because the official model to mark a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the composition of Vande Mataram.In Parliament’s monsoon session, the Home handed Prevention of Insults to Nationwide Honour (Modification) Invoice, 2026, which made singing of all six stanzas necessary and supplied for punishment for non-compliance and disrespect. Muslims have objected to the singing of the track past the 2 stanzas as a result of they contemplate the remainder of it to be idolatrous.
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Slamming BJP, Kharge underlined Congress had handed a decision about nationwide songs “earlier than they (BJP netas) had been born”, a reference to post-independence identification of Jana Gana Mana as nationwide anthem and Vande Mataram as nationwide track, and their official variations. “Will BJP resolve what’s the nationwide track? If there’s a new govt tomorrow, will it resolve the nationwide track? We did what has been occurring for 90 years,” he mentioned.Speaking to reporters, Prasad mentioned it was the primary president and head of Constituent Meeting Rajendra Prasad who was instrumental in getting Vande Mataram declared nationwide track. “He was additionally a Congressman,” he mentioned.Sources mentioned the Congress Working Committee assembly on Wednesday will clear the social gathering’s stand on the track.
