In a charged Lok Sabha session marking the 150th anniversary of India's national song "Vande Mataram," Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Monday delivered a scathing rebuttal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the BJP of politicising history for electoral gains while ignoring pressing national crises. The debate, initiated by Modi, saw the Prime Minister lambast the Congress for its 1937 decision on the song, which he linked to the subcontinent's Partition, portraying it as an act of appeasement that undermined national unity.
"Vande Mataram is a part of India's soul," Vadra countered and further questioned "Why are we debating this? This is our national song. The song is in our blood. We are debating this because the Bengal polls are coming soon... The government wants us to keep delving in past because it does not want to look at present and future”.
Turning directly to Modi's critique, Vadra highlighted the irony of attacking Nehru, who spent over a decade in British jails - equivalent to Modi's tenure as premier. "You keep criticising Nehru Ji. But if he hadn't created ISRO, there wouldn't have been Mangalyaan; how would the government have managed to contain coronavirus if he hadn't started AIIMS?" she retorted, underscoring Nehru's foundational role in India's scientific and healthcare infrastructure. The Wayanad MP proposed a truce: a dedicated parliamentary debate solely on Nehru's "insults" and wrong doings to "close the chapter once and for all," paving the way for talks on real issues like price rise and unemployment. "Since you keep talking about Nehru, let's assign a time for a discussion, list out all the insults against him... After that, let’s talk about today’s issues…”Nehru has lived his life for the country…lets settle this once and for all” she urged.
She invoked historical letters between Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose to refute claims of Congress betrayal, emphasising "Vande Mataram was not just a song; it was the heartbeat of our freedom movement." Accusing the BJP of "weaponising" the song for division, Vadra stressed its inclusive ethos: "Honouring Vande Mataram means embracing the inclusive spirit it represents, not weaponising it for divisive politics”. But she reiterated "Let us use the precious time of this Parliament for the job people have elected us for,"
As BJP members protested, Vadra stood firm: "You are for the elections, we are for the country. No matter how many elections we lose, we will sit here and keep fighting you and your ideology. You cannot stop us”. Earlier in the day, PM Modi during his speech has alleged that Vande Mataram as a song was truncated and its crucial lines excised in the version adapted as national song by Jawaharlal Nehru under pressure from the Muslim League. He alleged that Nehru had followed Jinnah's stand in 1937, claiming the hymn could "irritate Muslims", and thereby compromised its legacy. "Instead of condemning the slogans of the Muslim League and expressing loyalty towards Vande Mataram, he wrote to Netaji Subhas Bose, agreeing with Jinnah. He wrote that the context of Anandamath can irritate Muslims," PM Modi said - a claim that has been strangled countered by Vadra. She reminded the house, quoting historical facts, that the song - as is being sung today, was adopted as the national song after Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore, B R Ambedkar, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and even BJP’s ideological Shyama Prasad had agreed.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contended that PM Modi was misrepresenting the matter. Nehru, India's first Prime Minister - had called the row over Vande Mataram "manufactured by communalists", she said. Substantiating her argument, she read out the relevant passages from the letters by Nehru and Bose and the later correspondence between Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, saying it was important to "understand the chronology" of the events that led to the choice of Vande Mataram as the National song.
"Let me share an excerpt from the letter in which Gurudev (Rabindranath Tagore) says that the two stanzas that were always sung were so significant that he had no difficulty in separating them from the rest of the poem and the passages in the book... He said the same two stanzas were always sung during the freedom struggle and to honour the hundreds of martyrs who sacrificed their lives. While singing them, it would be appropriate to sing them as they were. He also said that the stanzas added later could be interpreted as communal and their use would be inappropriate in the atmosphere of that time. Subsequently, on 28 October 1937, the Congress Working Committee, in its resolution, declared Vande Mataram as the national anthem," she said. She called this debate an insult to the forefathers who fought for the country, unconstitutional to now suggest that this song has been used for divisive politics. “Our National Anthem is also the truncated form from a long poem...”, she reminded.
