Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday mounted a sharp critique of the BJP during the Lok Sabha’s special debate marking 150 years of Vande Mataram, accusing the ruling party of attempting to “appropriate everything for political gain”.
The Kannauj MP argued that the national song’s legacy was far larger than the “partisan narratives” being promoted today, insisting that Vande Mataram belonged to the nation’s freedom struggle and to its people, not to any political formation. “The people in the ruling party today want to claim everything as their own,” he said, warning that history could not be repackaged to suit contemporary politics.
Opening his remarks by commemorating Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, “who gave the nation a song that awakened millions”, Yadav alleged that the BJP was trying to “own everything” and reshape the cultural memory surrounding the national song. He recalled that Vande Mataram had served as a rallying cry during the independence movement, and credited Rabindranath Tagore’s rendition at the Calcutta Congress session for carrying it into the public imagination.
Turning his fire squarely on the BJP, Yadav revisited historical debates about the party’s ideological direction. He referred to past discussions on whether the BJP would ever commit to a socialist and secular path. “Tell me today, how many socialist and secular people remain in the BJP?” he asked.
Yadav argued that Vande Mataram was “not merely meant to be sung, but to be lived”, questioning whether the ruling party’s actions over the last few decades reflected the ideals embodied in the song. “Today, the forces of division want to break this nation. These same people betrayed the nation earlier, and they are betraying it even now,” he said.
In one of his most pointed remarks, Yadav alleged that some individuals now speaking loudly about nationalism had, during the freedom struggle, acted as informants for the British. “Those who didn’t participate in the freedom movement, what would they know about celebrating Vande Mataram?” he asked. He added, “Some people acted as spies for the British. They were not nationalists; they were anti-nationalist forces.”
In addition, the SP chief further accused the BJP of continuing the colonial-era policy of “divide and rule”. “The British policy was divide and rule, and even today, some people are following the same path, walking the path of division,” he said, challenging the BJP’s claim to historical fidelity. “Their history will show why they never sang this song before independence, and why they didn’t sing it even after independence.”
The debate in the Lok Sabha is part of a wider discussion across both Houses to commemorate 150 years of Vande Mataram. The BJP-led NDA has been allotted three hours in the Lower House, while the entire debate is scheduled to span ten hours across the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, 9 December.
