The BJP on Saturday (August 15, 2026) accused Congress leader Sonia Gandhi of objecting to the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram at the party’s Independence Day event, even as the Opposition party denied the charge.
The Congress asserted that there was no attempt to stop the singing of the full version of the national song and Ms. Gandhi was only asking for a chair for party chief Mallikarjun Kharge as he was standing for a while.
Sharing video footage of the Congress’s event on X, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh said, “Mother, son and national president (of the Congress) seem to be upset by the rendering of full Vande Mataram.” Certain mindsets never change from pre 1947 to post 1947, the senior BJP leader added.
BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, “The scene that has come to light today on Independence Day is utterly shameful. Sonia Gandhi’s objection during the rendition of India’s national song, ‘Vande Mataram’, and her questioning of Congress workers as to why it was being played exposes the Congress party’s mindset.” Mr. Agarwal said Vande Mataram is not merely a song, but a historic symbol of India’s freedom struggle, national consciousness and patriotism.
“Is this the same Congress that lays claim to the legacy of the nation’s freedom struggle?” he asked.
Mr. Agarwal alleged that the Congress’s attitude towards Vande Mataram reminds people of the party’s “Emergency mindset”.
“The people of the country have rejected this mindset and will continue to reject it,” he said.
The Congress denied that there was any attempt to stop the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram, asserting that Gandhi was only asking for a chair for Mr. Kharge.
Asked about the row, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “On October 28, 1937, in Calcutta, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee was held in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Govind Ballabh Pant and C Rajagopalachari, and on the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, they decided that the initial stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at the Congress sessions.” Tagore gave the advice to Nehru and Bose that the first few paragraphs of Vande Mataram should be used, he said.
“We have been singing those lines in every session since them, our Seva Dal sings it, our workers sing it, there is no controversy over that,” Mr. Ramesh said.
He asserted that the full version of the national song was sung on Saturday.
“This was discussed in Parliament for 16 hours. We put forward our views. I narrated the whole history around it which the prime minister and the home minister did not know. I informed MPs of the context in which the Vande Mataram decision was taken,” Mr. Ramesh said.
“But today, at Indira Bhawan, the full version was sung, there is no question of a controversy over it,” he added.
Asked about the allegation levelled by BJP leaders, Ramesh categorically denied that there was an attempt to stop the singing of the song’s full version.
“As the Congress president was standing for a long time, Soniaji was asking for a chair for him,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari alleged that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi attempted to stop the rendition of the full version of Vande Mataram for vote-bank and appeasement politics.
“Congress is suffering from ‘Dimagi Naxal mindset’,” Mr. Bhandari said in a post on X.
Taking a dig at Sonia Gandhi, BJP spokesperson R P Singh asked, “Why does Antonio Maino Ji hate Vande Mataram so much? When Vande Mataram was being sung, Antonio Maino Ji reportedly became so angry that she allegedly got agitated and asked her party workers to stop it. Why such hatred for Vande Mataram?” Last month, Parliament passed a bill that makes any insult to the national song a punishable offence. The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was passed by a voice vote in the Lok Sabha on July 30, a day after it was approved by the Rajya Sabha.
The law grants status to Vande Mataram on par with national anthem Jana Gana Mana.
BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya said for the first time, the entire Vande Mataram was sung at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day.
“After the initial stanzas of Vande Mataram were sung, Sonia Gandhi became agitated and asked for the rendition to be stopped rather than played in full. Rahul Gandhi too appeared to signal that it should end. They were told to let it continue,” he claimed in a post on X.
“The message was clear: the complete national song is now to be respected under the new legal framework, and intentional obstruction or disturbance can invite serious consequences. They eventually fell in line, and Vande Mataram was sung in full,” he added.
Mr. Malviya alleged that for decades, “the Gandhis” and the Congress have displayed an uneasy relationship with the idea of a culturally-confident and civilisationally-rooted India.
“That discomfort stood exposed, ironically, on Independence Day,” the BJP leader added.
Published – August 15, 2026 03:06 pm IST
