Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s objection to playing the full Vande Mataram at the beginning and end of official functions has widened a political row in Kerala, with the BJP accusing the Congress of yielding to pressure from the Muslim League, its partner in the United Democratic Front government.
Tharoor, speaking in Thiruvananthapuram, said Vande Mataram commands respect as the national song but questioned the need to require audiences to stand through all verses twice at formal events. He said the first verse, or the first couple of verses, was familiar to most people and had long been accepted as the customary public rendition. Making the complete version a repeated feature of government functions, he argued, was difficult to justify.
The BJP responded sharply, framing the remarks as part of a wider Congress reluctance to accord full respect to national symbols. Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged that the Congress had again shown it was “against national honour” and claimed the party had capitulated to the Muslim League on the issue. He also linked the present dispute to older arguments over why only part of Vande Mataram came to be used at national gatherings.
The exchange has gained force because it comes amid a separate dispute in Kerala over the rendering of Vande Mataram during the opening session of the 16th Assembly on May 29. The Kerala Police band played only a portion of the song before Governor Rajendra Arlekar’s policy address, prompting the Governor to object after returning to Raj Bhavan. His position was that the national song should be performed in full, not selectively.
The episode has become one of the first major cultural flashpoints for the new UDF government, which is led by the Congress and supported by the Muslim League. The BJP has sought to turn the issue into a test of the Congress’s position on nationalism, while the Left has also criticised attempts to make the full rendition a matter of political loyalty.
Tharoor’s comments were more procedural than ideological. He said everyone stands in respect when Vande Mataram is sung and that no one disputes its place in the freedom struggle. His objection centred on compulsion and repetition. He referred to a book launch in New Delhi attended by Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan, where the full song was played at the start and again at the end. Many in the audience, he said, appeared to find it difficult to remain standing through a long and unfamiliar rendition twice.
The controversy has also revived an older debate about the official and political status of Vande Mataram. Written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and later included in his novel Anandamath, the song became a powerful slogan during the freedom movement. Rabindranath Tagore sang it at the 1896 Congress session in Calcutta, and it later became closely associated with nationalist mobilisation against colonial rule.
On January 24, 1950, the Constituent Assembly accorded Vande Mataram the status of national song and said it would be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana. The public rendition, however, has historically centred on the opening stanzas, partly because later verses contain religious imagery that drew objections from some communities before independence.
That history remains politically contested. The BJP has long argued that limiting the song’s use weakened its original spirit and reflected appeasement politics. Congress leaders and several other opposition voices have maintained that the accepted version preserved both respect for the song and sensitivity to the country’s religious diversity.
The Union Home Ministry’s protocol earlier this year added to the debate by setting out directions on how Vande Mataram should be rendered at official events, especially where it is performed along with the national anthem. Opposition parties and Muslim organisations criticised the move, saying it risked turning a symbol of national unity into a point of coercion. A challenge to the protocol reached the Supreme Court, which declined to interfere at that stage and treated the apprehension of discrimination as premature.
Kerala’s political setting has made the dispute sharper. The Muslim League is a key constituent of the UDF, and the BJP has repeatedly accused the Congress of allowing coalition compulsions to shape its public stance on cultural questions. Congress leaders reject that charge, saying the party’s position is rooted in constitutional practice and social harmony rather than minority appeasement.
