"Vande Mataram emotional for us, political for them": KC Venugopal slams BJP after Congress defies Centre's national song protocol

NEW DELHI: Congress MP KC Venugopal on Thursday said "Vande Mataram", which was part of the freedom struggle, is "emotional for us, political for BJP". He defended the Congress Working Committee's (CWC) decision to sing only two stanzas of the national song in line with the party's 1937 resolution.

Speaking to ANI, the senior Congress leader said the national song had an emotional significance for his party because of its association with India's freedom struggle, while accusing the BJP of politicising it.

"BJP was not a part of the freedom struggle. Vande Mataram was a part of the freedom struggle; it is emotional for us, but political for them (BJP)," Venugopal said, adding, "We have been reciting Vande Mataram since 1937, more than 90 years. What is new for us?"

"They want to divert attention from the genuine issues of paper leaks, theft of donations and Chinese incursion in Arunachal Pradesh," he said. This comes after Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a sharp attack on Congress, accusing it of reviving its "extreme policy of appeasement" after the CWC decided to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram, in line with the party's 1937 resolution.

Speaking to ANI, Shah said that the decision was not merely symbolic but a repetition of a historical error that had contributed to the partition of India. "Yesterday, the Congress Party Working Committee took a surprising and anti-national decision. Following their party's resolution of 1937, they have decided to sing only two stanzas of the great song, Vande Mataram. I want to remind the entire country that in 1937, for Muslim appeasement, the Congress party laid the foundation for the partition of the country by dividing Vande Mataram into two.

From there, the two-nation theory gained strength and eventually, the country was partitioned and Pakistan was born," the Union Home Minister said. "Today, when the Narendra Modi government has corrected that historical mistake in the 150th year of Vande Mataram's composition, and tried to strengthen national integration by singing the entire song. The decision to sing it in full in all government functions has been given legal form as well. Yesterday, Congress decided to ignore it. This decision by Congress only confirms their extreme policy of appeasement. For vote bank appeasement, they have not only insulted the immortal work of the late Bankim Babu, but also millions of martyrs who went to the gallows for the country's independence while chanting Vande Mataram, and spent many years in jail," he added.

Shah credited the PM Narendra Modi government with reversing what he called a decades-old wrong, noting the significance of the anniversary. He also criticised the Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi and the Congress and called on the people to raise their voice against the party's stand. 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.