New Delhi [India], August 22 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday passed an important resolution to uphold the honour, dignity and historic legacy of Vande Mataram, India's National Song, and strongly condemned the Congress Working Committee's decision of August 19 to stand with its 1937 resolution of restricting the National Song's singing to only the first two stanzas, BJP national president Nitin Nabin said.
Nitin Nabin shared the official resolution on X and highlighted the historical significance of 'Vande Mataram'.
He asserted that the BJP resolved to strongly condemn and clearly oppose the decision of the Congress Working Committee on August 19, 2026, to reiterate the 1937 resolution limiting the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas.
The party also resolved to protect the honour, dignity, legacy, and national character of the full Vande Mataram, recognising it as India's national song, an immortal symbol of national consciousness, and the glorious heritage of the freedom struggle. He added that the resolution included to firmly affirm the established position from the Constituent Assembly's declaration in 1950 and the granting of equal statutory protection to the national song as to Jana Gana Mana by Parliament in 2026.
भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने आज 22 अगस्त 2026 को वंदे मातरम् के सम्मान और उसकी ऐतिहासिक विरासत की रक्षा के संबंध में एक महत्वपूर्ण प्रस्ताव पारित किया।
भारतीय जनता पार्टी 19 अगस्त 2026 को कांग्रेस कार्यसमिति द्वारा 1937 के अपने प्रस्ताव को पुनः स्वीकार करते हुए कांग्रेस के कार्यक्रमों… pic.twitter.com/c8700p3JBh
Nabin said that the resolution included that the party will oppose every attempt to subject the national song to communal pressures, political appeasement, or narrow vote-bank politics and to remind the Congress that no resolution of its Working Committee can stand above India's constitutional institutions and laws enacted by Parliament. He said that "the political compromise of 1937 cannot be placed above the constitutional decision of 1950 and the law enacted by Parliament in 2026."
Additionally, he said the party resolved to highlight before the public "that historical and political context in which the singing of Vande Mataram was restricted, which included objections from the Muslim League and the subsequent politics of rising communal and separatist demands."
"To carry to every individual Mahatma Gandhi's historic statement in which he described Vande Mataram as linked to the "anti-imperialist slogan" and the "purest national sentiment. To launch a nationwide campaign through BJP workers, under which the history, meaning, national significance, and glorious legacy of Vande Mataram will be carried to every corner of India," he added.
The resolution said that the party will "conduct a special awareness campaign among the younger generation so that the full national song with its six stanzas and its history are not consigned to oblivion, and so that future generations can understand how deeply intertwined with Vande Mataram are India's memories of freedom, struggle, sacrifice, and national awakening."
The resolution said that there will be no compromise accepted whatsoever with the honor and legacy of Vande Mataram for the sake of political expediency or appeasement.
Nabin said that the discussion surrounding Vande Mataram is bigger than politics, framing it as question of the nation's honour and the legacy of freedom fighters.
"This is not merely an issue connected to any political party. It is a question of India's honor and the legacy of those countless patriots who laid down their all for the nation's freedom. The Bharatiya Janata Party calls upon the countrymen to remember-- the words of Vande Mataram were once so powerful that an empire trembled in fear of them. The British tried to suppress them because those words had awakened the consciousness of resistance," he said.
"Generations of Indians embraced them as the mantra of freedom, sacrifice, and national pride. This legacy cannot be confined to the calculations of today's vote-bank politics. In 1947, the victory cry of India's independence was 'Vande Mataram', and under the leadership of the honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, the grand proclamation of 'Developed India' in 2047 will also be 'Vande Mataram'," he added.
This comes after the Congress Working Committee decided that only the first two stanzas of the national song would be sung at party events, citing the party's own 1937 resolution.
The decision followed days of controversy after the BJP accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party parliamentary chairperson Sonia Gandhi of conversing while the national song was being rendered during Independence Day celebrations on August 15, and demanded a public apology.
After the CWC meeting, Congress MP KC Venugopal said the party's stand on the recitation of Vande Mataram was clear and that it would follow the decisions taken by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1937. (ANI)
