On the 150th anniversary of India’s national song, Kharge said in a statement that ‘Vande Mataram’, composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, embodies the spirit of Bharat Mata and celebrates the unity and diversity of India.
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“The Indian National Congress has been the proud flag-bearer of Vande Mataram. It was during the Congress session in Calcutta in 1896, under the leadership of the then Congress President Rahmatullah Sayani, that Vande Mataram was sung publicly for the first time by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
“That moment breathed new life into the freedom struggle. The Congress understood that the British Empire’s policy of divide and rule, manipulating religious, caste and regional identities, was intended to break the unity of India. In the face of this, Vande Mataram stood as a song of unwavering strength, uniting all Indians in devotion to Bharat Mata,” he said.
From the partition of Bengal in 1905 to the last breath of the country’s courageous revolutionaries, ‘Vande Mataram’ reverberated across the country, the Congress leader said.
It was the title of Lala Lajpat Rai’s publication, inscribed on Bhikaji Cama’s flag hoisted in Germany, and found in Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil’s Kranti Gitanjali, he noted.
“Terrified by its popularity, the British banned it because it had become the heartbeat of India’s freedom struggle,” Mr Kharge said.
In 1915, he said, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that ‘Vande Mataram’ had become the ‘mightiest rallying cry among the Hindus and Muslims of Bengal during the Partition days. It was an anti-imperialist cry’.
The Congress president said Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister, said in 1938 that “the song has been directly associated with Indian nationalism for more than thirty years. Such ‘people’s songs’ are neither tailor-made nor can they be imposed on the minds of people. They reach the heights on their own.”
Mr Kharge claimed that the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly started chanting ‘Vande Mataram’ in 1937 when Purshottam Das Tandon was the speaker.
The same year, the Indian National Congress formally recognized ‘Vande Mataram’ as the national song, reaffirming its position as a symbol of India’s unity in diversity, he noted.
“However, it is deeply ironic that those who today claim to be the self-appointed custodians of nationalism – the RSS and the BJP – have never sung ‘Vande Mataram’ or our national anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’, in their shakhas or offices.
“Instead, they continue to sing ‘Namaste Sada Vatsale’, a song that glorifies their organizations and not the nation. Since its inception in 1925, the RSS has avoided ‘Vande Mataram’ despite its universal reverence. Not once in the lyrics or literature is the song mentioned,” he claimed.
Mr Kharge alleged that “the RSS and Sangh Parivar supported the British against the Indians in the national movement, failed to hoist the national flag for 52 years, abused the Constitution of India, burned effigies of Bapu and Babasaheb Ambedkar and, in the words of Sardar Patel, were involved in the assassination of Gandhiji.”
The Congress, on the other hand, is immensely proud of both ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jana Gana Mana’, he said, adding that both the songs are sung with reverence at every party gathering and event, symbolizing India’s unity and pride.
From 1896 to this day, ‘Vande Mataram’ is sung with pride and patriotism as a tribute to the people of India at every Congress meeting, from small to large, he added.
“The Congress Party reaffirms its unwavering faith in Vande Mataram, the eternal song of our motherland, the loud cry of our unity and the voice of India’s immortal spirit,” Mr Kharge said.
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“Rabindranath Tagore had first sung Vande Mataram at the December 1896 session of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta.
“He would subsequently play the most crucial role in determining Vande Mataram’s place in our public life, as reflected in the Congress Working Committee resolution of October 29, 1937,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Published – Nov 7, 2025 12:48 PM IST
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