NEW DELHI: Is the Congress trying to send out a subtle message signalling “soft minority appeasement”? Or has the party played to BJP’s strength by lapping up a controversy that may push it into a corner?The Congress’s decision to sing only two stanzas of Vande Mataram at party events signalled a rare hardening of stance on an issue that the party knows could make it vulnerable to attacks over both minority appeasement and nationalism.As expected, the Congress decision, which cited a 1937 resolution, triggered sharp reactions from the BJP, with Union home minister Amit Shah accusing the Congress of repeating “politics of appeasement.”Union Minister JP Nadda also slammed the Congress, alleging that the party’s 1937 resolution was driven by “appeasement politics” and contributed to the circumstances that led to the Partition. In a post on X, Nadda said the Congress’ decision in 1937 to divide ‘Vande Mataram’ into two parts fuelled the two-nation theory and ultimately led to the partition of the country.’This was followed by attacks questioning Congress’s commitment to nationalism and patriotism.Union Minister Giriraj Singh accused the Congress leadership of disrespecting the legacy of India’s freedom fighters and operating under ideological pressure. “This is not just opposition to Vande Mataram but against our revolutionaries,” Singh said, adding, “Now, the Congress has become the Muslim League. This is not Gandhi ji’s Congress but Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s Congress,” the BJP leader said.BJP MP Dinesh Sharma also accused the opposition leadership of harbouring “Muslim League-like thinking.” He 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.Later, the BJP passed a resolution condemning the Congress Working Committee’s decision to sing only the first two stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ and announced a nationwide campaign to raise awareness about the history and significance of the National Song.No surprises here. All these attacks were on expected lines. Surely, the Congress would have anticipated these high-pitched narratives questioning its nationalism and accusing it of appeasement.
Congress fights back
Congress leaders defended the party’s stand, saying ‘Vande Mataram’ was associated with the freedom struggle and held emotional significance for the Congress. They accused the BJP of politicising the issue and diverting attention from the issue of Ram Mandir donation theft.“BJP was not a part of the freedom struggle. Vande Mataram was a part of the freedom struggle; it is emotional for us, but political for them (BJP),” Venugopal said, adding, “We have been reciting Vande Mataram since 1937, more than 90 years. What is new for us?”The Congress leaders alleged that political rivals led by the BJP were deliberately stoking nationalist narratives to cover up their failures. What the Congress perhaps did not realise, or chose to ignore, was that the BJP had already set the stage for bringing Vande Mataram to the centrestage of its politics.Why the 1937 reference created more problems than it solvedBankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote ‘Bande Mataram’ in the late 19th century in Sanskritised Bengali. The original version consisted of six stanzas. The song was first inserted into the pages of his novel, Anandamath, set during the late 18th century when famine and rebellion tore through Bengal.In 1950, alongside ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem, Vande Mataram received the honour of a national song following a decision of the Constituent Assembly, under the guidance of Rajendra Prasad, considering the historic role it played in India’s freedom struggle.However, only the first two stanzas of the song were adopted as the national song.The Congress Working Committee (CWC), in a resolution of October 29, 1937, decided that only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung at national and public gatherings.This had followed advice from Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first to set Vande Mataram to music and publicly sing it at the 1896 Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. In a letter to Jawaharlal Nehru, he suggested that only the first two stanzas of the song be used for public and national gatherings.Tagore then noted that the later verses — which invoked Hindu deities like Durga within the context of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Anandamath—could alienate non-Hindu communities.The fact that the Muslim League and M A Jinnah were among the most vociferous critics of the song made the Congress’s 1937 resolution vulnerable to Muslim appeasement attacks ever since.
BJP’s Vande Mataram push
BJP’s Vande Mataram push began in May this year when the Union Cabinet approved a proposal to amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and put the National Song, Vande Mataram, composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, on the same footing as the National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana.It was during the special discussion of Parliament on “150th Year of Vande Mataram” in December last year that defence minister Rajnath Singh had strongly advocated for elevating the status of Vande Mataram to match the National Anthem. Rajnath had then accused the Congress of historically communalising the song and sidelining it due to appeasement politics.Earlier in January this year the Union home ministry had outlined appropriate conduct and protocols concerning Vande Mataram. The ministry had issued an order that all six stanzas of the official version must be rendered first whenever the National Song and the National Anthem are performed together. It said that the full six-stanza version was to be sung or played on key state occasions.These proposals became law in the just-concluded Monsoon session after Parliament amended the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, giving Vande Mataram equal legal standing to the National Anthem. The government is also midway through a year-long commemoration of Vande Mataram’s 150th anniversary.The amended Act mandates Vande Mataram shall be honoured equally with ‘Jana-Gana-Mana’ and shall have equal status with it, and whoever intentionally prevents the singing of the Indian National Anthem or causes disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with a fine, or both.
Could Congress have avoided this row
Clearly, given the BJP moves, the Congress would have been aware of the political fallout of its Vande Mataram decision. Minority appeasement has been one of the biggest weapons, which the BJP has used very effectively to attack and corner the Congress.In the last 12 years, we have seen the Congress suffer politically over allegations of minority appeasement. The Congress leadership has tried to fight back with a calculated push for soft Hindutva. Rahul Gandhi and other top Congress leaders have visited temples to counter BJP’s attacks on minority appeasement.In the 1980s, the Congress faced a Shah Bano moment, which is still used to target and corner the party over allegations of minority appeasement. The then Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi enacted a law in Parliament to limit a Muslim husband’s maintenance obligation to the three-month iddat period, neutralizing a Supreme Court maintenance order under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).Minorities, especially Muslims, for a very long time were part of Congress’s core vote bank and supported the party electorally. However, as the Congress lost political heft, the minorities gradually shifted to other regional parties. The same happened with other social groups like the SCs, STs and the OBCs. For the last many years, the Congress has been forced to align with the regional parties that weaned away its core voters. Now, as it tries to script its revival, it is trying to win back these communities into the party fold.We have seen Rahul Gandhi aggressively woo the SCs, STs and the OBCs by repeatedly taking up issues that impact them. The Congress leader’s sustained pitch for caste census was an open move to reach out to these core voters. But when it comes to wooing back the minority voters, the Congress perhaps wants to play it safe. And it’s not just the Muslim appeasement attack that the Congress wants to avoid, it perhaps also does not want to antagonize its ally in Uttar Pradesh – the Samajwadi Party.
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Interestingly, Rahul and Akhilesh Yadav appeal to the same social support base and hence the alliance chemistry is always overshadowed by competing interests.It is in this context that one is left wondering: Has the Congress taken a calculated gamble?
