DH NEWS SERVICE
New Delhi, Nov 7
Prime Minister Narendra Modi weighed in on the controversy over Congress allegedly ‘shortening’ Vande Mataram, saying that the important stanzas of the national song were dropped in 1937, which later sowed seeds of partition.
PM Modi was speaking after inaugurating the year-long commemoration of “Vande Mataram” to mark 150 years of the national song.
“Vande Mataram became the voice of India’s freedom struggle, it expressed the feelings of every Indian. Unfortunately, in 1937, important stanzas of Vande Mataram…a part of its soul, were severed. The division of Vande Mataram also sowed the seeds of partition. Today’s generation needs to know why this injustice was done with this ‘maha mantra’ of nation building,” PM Modi said, adding that this divisive mindset is still a challenge for the country.
His remarks came shortly after the BJP alleged that a shortened version of the song was released because former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru “deliberately removed” stanzas that praised Goddess Durga.
“Vande Mataram”, composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, was first published in the literary journal ‘Bangadarshan’ on November 7, 1875. It was incorporated in the novel ‘Anandamath’, published in 1882. On 24 January 1950, India’s constituent assembly adopted it as a national song.
According to several accounts, a truncated version of “Vande Mataram”, keeping only the first two of the original six stanzas, was chosen as the national song in 1937 by the Congress.
Referring to Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Modi said when adversaries dared to attack India’s security and honour through terrorism, the world saw that while New India “embodies the spirit of ‘Kamala and Vimala’ in service to humanity, it also knows how to become Durga — the wielder of ten weapons — for the destruction of terror”.
Speaking of the 150th anniversary of the song, the prime minister said that it gives us new inspiration and fills people of the country with new energy.
“Vande Mataram is a word, a mantra, an energy, a dream, a resolve…We have to build a nation which is at the top on the basis of knowledge, science and technology,” he said.
Controversy over Vande Mataram
Earlier on Friday, the BJP claimed that the Congress adopted only a truncated “Vande Mataram” as the party’s national song in 1937.
BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan charged in a post on X accused the Congress of a “historic sin and blunder” under Nehru’s party presidency back in 1937.
“The Congress committed the historic sin and blunder of linking the song with religion. Congress under Nehru citing religious grounds deliberately removed stanzas of Vande Mataram which hailed Goddess Ma Durga,” the post read.
“In a letter dated Sep 1, 1937, Nehru spitefully writes that anybody considering the words in Vande Mataram as anything to do with a Goddess was absurd,” Kesavan added.
The Maharashtra unit of Congress, meanwhile, attacked BJP, accusing it of “misusing” the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the song for “political polarisation” and “hypocritical nationalism”.
