Chidambaram mocks BJP’s ‘sudden love’ for Vande Mataram
Madurai: Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for its “sudden affection” for Vande Mataram, and accused the party of creating an “unnecessary controversy” to pass the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in Parliament.
According to Kashmir Media Service, speaking at an event m, the Rajya Sabha MP alleged that neither the BJP nor its ideological predecessors — the Hindu Mahasabha, Jana Sangh and the RSS — had sung Vande Mataram during the 100-year freedom struggle.
“I ask the BJP to point out anywhere the Hindu Mahasabha, the Jana Sangh, or the RSS ever sang Vande Mataram. Nowhere, at no time, on no day did they sing it,” Chidambaram said. He added that for many years after independence, the RSS did not even hoist the tricolour in Nagpur and only hoisted the saffron flag.
Tracing the history of the song, Chidambaram said the Congress Working Committee, in a meeting attended by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and others, had unanimously decided to sing only the first two stanzas after Rabindranath Tagore wrote to Nehru that it was sufficient.
He alleged the BJP-led Modi government introduced the Vande Mataram bill at 1:30 pm and passed it by 1:35 pm, calling it one of the “mischievous” bills among the 12 passed in the monsoon session.
The bill seeks to amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, to bring Vande Mataram within its ambit and make it an offence to intentionally prevent its singing or cause disturbance during its recitation.
