Vande Mataram row: BJP likens Congress to Jinnah's 'Muslim League'

The row over Vande Mataram has intensified as BJP MP Dinesh Sharma accused Congress of 'Muslim League-like thinking' for its decision to sing only two stanzas of the national song, equating the party's leaders with Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

BJP MP Dinesh Sharma (Photo/ ANI)

The row over Vande Mataram has escalated into a fierce political war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress over the national song.

BJP Accuses Congress of 'Muslim League-like Thinking'

Reacting sharply to the Congress Working Committee's (CWC) stance on singing only select stanzas of the song during official party events, BJP MP Dinesh Sharma accused the opposition leadership of harbouring "Muslim League-like thinking."

Speaking to ANI, Sharma equated senior Congress leaders with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan who spearheaded the Two-Nation Theory, to criticise the Congress party's approach toward national symbols.

Hitting out at the opposition, Sharma remarked, "The Jinnah hidden within the senior leaders of Congress has now come out. Their Muslim League-like thinking has been exposed. Merely holding the Constitution in your hand does not mean respecting it--the Constitution has to be lived. When both Houses of Parliament have passed it, the stanza must be sung."

Jinnah was the leading figure of the All-India Muslim League and played a central role in the political movement that culminated in the creation of Pakistan. At the 1940 Lahore session of the All-India Muslim League, Jinnah formally advanced the position that Hindus and Muslims constituted separate nations with distinct cultures and civilisations, an argument that became central to the Muslim League's demand for a separate Muslim homeland.

Sharma accused the Congress of displaying what he described as a mindset similar to that of the Muslim League and questioned the party's approach towards the Constitution. "Merely holding the Constitution in your hand does not mean respecting it--the Constitution has to be lived," Sharma said.

The BJP MP further said that since both Houses of Parliament had passed the relevant measure concerning Vande Mataram, the prescribed stanza should be sung. "When both Houses of Parliament have passed it, the stanza must be sung," he said.

Congress's Historical Stance on the National Song

Notably, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Wednesday announced that only two stanzas of the national song should be sung in line with the party's 1937 resolution.

The 1937 Congress Working Committee resolution adopted only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram as the National Song, following advice from Rabindranath Tagore to avoid communal friction over later verses.

At a meeting in October 1937 with leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Subhas Chandra Bose, the CWC decided to drop the later stanzas because their explicit Hindu imagery and context in Anandamath caused political controversy with the Muslim League.

Official Status of Vande Mataram

On January 24, 1950, President Dr. Rajendra Prasad declared in the Constituent Assembly that Vande Mataram shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana (the National Anthem), though it holds the status of National Song, not National Anthem. (ANI)

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