A political row erupted Sunday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused Congress leader Sonia Gandhi of attempting to stop the full rendition of Vande Mataram at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day and said the party should apologise to the nation.

The Congress rejected the charge and defended its leader, saying the full version of the Vande Mataram was sung at the party’s Independence Day function.

Speaking at Nimbahera in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh where a statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was unveiled on his death anniversary, Shah said the Congress had not given Vande Mataram its due respect.

“Chanting Vande Mataram, thousands of people went to the gallows, faced bullets, endured lathi charges, and spent many years in jail. But in its vote-bank greed, the Congress forgot Vande Mataram,” he said.

“Look how shameless they are. Vande Mataram was being sung at the Congress party headquarters. During the song, Congress leader Soniaji asked the Congress president to stop the song. We all watched it on TV. After 80 years, Bankim Babu’s immortal mantra, his immortal song, was once again receiving respect, but Soniaji didn’t like it,” Shah said.

“Soniaji, 140 crore people of the country are watching you. The people of this country will never forgive this sin you have committed. How could anyone even dream of leaving Vande Mataram midway? Congress workers should be ashamed. And if they have any shame left, then they should apologise, with folded hands, to Bankim Babu and the people of the country,” he said.

Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, PM Narendra Modi, Speaker Om Birla, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta and BJP chief Nitin Nabin arrive to pay tribute to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his death anniversary, in New Delhi, Sunday.

BJP president Nitin Nabin said the happenings at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day was proof that even eight decades after Independence, the Congress had “no respect” for Vande Mataram.”

Story continues below this ad

“When the national song was being sung at the Congress headquarters, Sonia Gandhiji signalled to stop it. This is no coincidence, but the bitter truth of the Congress’s distorted thinking. The party that feels uncomfortable with this sacred song of ‘Mother India’ — the people of the country have fully understood how connected it is to Indianness,” Nabin said in a post on X.

In New Delhi, BJP national spokesperson Pradip Bhandari said the Congress did not just “insult” the freedom fighters of the country but also “the Constitution, sovereignty, integrity” of the country and its people.

“This behaviour of the Congress party indicates the mentality of the intellectual Naxal ecosystem… when Article 370 was abrogated, the Congress party opposed it… whenever there is talk of national interest, the Congress party gets angry,” he said.

Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh told reporters: “There is no question of an issue here. There was no attempt to stop it. Since Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had been standing for long, Soniaji had merely asked for a chair for him. That’s all.”

Story continues below this ad

He said that in October 1937 in Kolkata, it was the Congress Working Committee which had decided that Vande Mataram would be sung at Congress conventions.

Ramesh said Rabindranath Tagore had suggested to Jawaharlal Nehru and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose that the first few lines of Vande Mataram be sung, and since then, those very lines have been sung at every Congress convention. He said the full version was sung at the party’s Independence Day function.

PTI adds from Kolkata: Sumitro Chatterjee, BJP MLA and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, sought an unconditional apology from Sonia Gandhi. He claimed there was discomfort and repeated attempts to stop the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram.

In a letter to Gandhi, Chatterjee said it was “not merely unfortunate but a shameless repetition of a historical mistake”.

Story continues below this ad

The BJP MLA from Naihati, Chatterjee said he was writing as an ordinary citizen, a patriot, and a direct descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, expressing “deep pain, emptiness, and anger” over the episode.

He alleged that the Congress’s “so-called dual policy” was not new, recalling that in 1937, the party had “bowed” to Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s objections and truncated the song that October. He said the shadow of that “compromise” was visible again in the party’s conduct.