Vande Mataram politics returns to centre stage in Keralam as Onam festivities end

Politics over Vande Mataram resurfaced in Keralam again as Onam holidays drew to a close on Monday (August 31, 2026). A choir rendered the six-stanza version of the song at the conclusion of the Keralam government-sponsored Onam week pageantry, flagged off by Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan from an elevated VIP podium erected for the occasion in front of the Lok Bhavan on Sunday evening, re-igniting the controversy.

Vande Mataram sung in full twice at Kerala University Sports Day event with Governor, Ministers on stage

Keralam Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan and Tourism Minister P.C. Vishnunadh were on the dais with Mr Radhakrishnan when the colourful procession swept past the Lok Bhavan and slowly meandered down the arterial M.G. Road, overwhelmed by holiday crowds. 

The flag-off ceremony debatably marked a departure from the Keralam government’s decision not to sing Vande Mataram in full during the Independence Day celebrations on August 15. 

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M V Govindan accused the Congress of “playing second fiddle to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s project to build a civilisational polity defined by Hindutva ideology”, which he claimed sought to relegate minorities and marginalised sections of society to a subaltern status. 

He said the Congress had no qualms about rendering the “profoundly schismatic” song in full during the recent Independence Day celebrations at the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi.

Mr Govindan also slammed the AICC leadership for giving the go-by to the 1937 Congress Working Committee’s decision to limit the rendering of Vande Mataram to the first two lines of the composition on the premise that the later stanzas contained overt Hindu religious iconography. 

Mr Govindan said the Keralam government’s “latest acquiescence to the RSS’s Hindutva agenda has yet again pulled the veil back on the Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party covert ideological and political axis.”

Local Self-Government Minister K M Shaji told reporters that the Vice-President’s office had fixed the protocol for the event. The State government had no jurisdictional authority to alter the official etiquette set by the offices of those holding high constitutional positions, including that of the President and the Vice President. He noted that Vande Mataram was not rendered in full, if at all, in Keralam government’s official events.

Mr. Vishunadh also struck a similar note. 

Former Education Minister and CPI(M) State Committee member V Sivankutty said protocol offered “a perfect foil” for the UDF government to play a subordinate facilitator role to the RSS’s Hindutva agenda. “Protocol is a convenient pretext to swirl dandas (staff used by RSS workers for customary martial training), polish shoes and sing songs”, he quipped in a Facebook post.