The BJP on Saturday (August 15, 2026) accused Congress leader Sonia Gandhi of objecting to the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram at the party’s Independence Day event, even as the Opposition party denied the charge.
Sonia Gandhi’s objection during the rendition of India’s national song, ‘Vande Mataram’, and her questioning of Congress workers as to why it was being played exposes the Congress party’s mindset. Mr. We put forward our views. I narrated the whole history around it which the prime minister and the home minister did not know. I informed MPs of the context in which the Vande Mataram decision was taken,” Mr.
Certain mindsets never change from pre 1947 to post 1947, the senior BJP leader added. Asked about the row, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “On October 28, 1937, in Calcutta, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee was held in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Govind Ballabh Pant and C Rajagopalachari, and on the advice of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, they decided that the initial stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at the Congress sessions. “This was discussed in Parliament for 16 hours.
Sharing video footage of the Congress’s event on X, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh said, “Mother, son and national president (of the Congress) seem to be upset by the rendering of full Vande Mataram. Agarwal said Vande Mataram is not merely a song, but a historic symbol of India’s freedom struggle, national consciousness and patriotism. Tagore gave the advice to Nehru and Bose that the first few paragraphs of Vande Mataram should be used, he said. Ramesh said. “As the Congress president was standing for a long time, Soniaji was asking for a chair for him,” he said. “Congress is suffering from ‘Dimagi Naxal mindset’,” Mr. Bhandari said in a post on X. BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya said for the first time, the entire Vande Mataram was sung at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day.
BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, “The scene that has come to light today on Independence Day is utterly shameful.
