BJP’s CR Kesavan Accuses Congress of ‘Truncating’ Vande Mataram in 1937 to Appease Communal Interests; Cites Nehru’s Letters to Netaji

New Delhi: As India marks 150 years of Vande Mataram, the national song that once ignited the spirit of freedom, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson C.R. Kesavan has launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing it of “deliberately removing” stanzas praising Goddess Durga from the original composition during Jawaharlal Nehru’s leadership in 1937.

Kesavan, taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), alleged that the Congress Working Committee’s decision under Nehru to adopt only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram was made “to appease communal groups.” He claimed that the omitted verses, which invoked Maa Durga, were excluded due to “communal considerations.”

“It is imperative for our younger generation to know how the Congress party, brazenly pandering to its communal agenda under the presidentship of Nehru, adopted only a truncated Vande Mataram as the party’s national song in its 1937 Faizpur Session,” Kesavan wrote on X. He further highlighted that, in contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 150th-year celebrations of the full version with a “mass recital across the nation.”

Kesavan stated that “The glorious Vande Mataram became the voice of our nation’s unity and solidarity, celebrating our motherland, instilling nationalistic spirit and fostering patriotism. Chanting it was made a criminal offence by the British. It did not belong to any particular religion or language. But the Congress committed the historic sin and blunder of linking the song with religion.”

The BJP leader further alleged that the Congress, under Nehru, “citing religious grounds, deliberately removed stanzas of Vande Mataram, which hailed Goddess Maa Durga.”

Citing historical records, Kesavan referred to an October 20, 1937, letter written by Nehru to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, wherein Nehru reportedly admitted that Vande Mataram’s religious background “might irritate Muslims.” Kesavan added that Netaji Bose, however, had strongly supported singing the full version. He also mentioned another letter dated September 1, 1937, in which Nehru allegedly wrote that interpreting the song as being related to a goddess was “absurd” and that “Vande Mataram is not suitable as a national song.”

The controversy over Vande Mataram traces back to its origin in Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1882 novel Anandamath, where it was depicted as a rallying cry for national unity against colonial rule. Over time, however, certain Muslim groups expressed discomfort, viewing its religious imagery as exclusionary, leading to Congress’s decision in 1937 to restrict the song to its first two verses.