New Delhi, 8 December (H.S.): A heated political confrontation unfolded in the Lok Sabha on Monday during a special discussion marking 150 years of Vande Mataram, as leaders from across the political spectrum traded sharp barbs over the national song’s legacy, relevance, and political appropriation.

Parties including the BJP, Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), DMK, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena (UBT), and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) presented contrasting narratives over the song’s historical symbolism and ideological interpretation.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of “claiming ownership” over freedom fighters who had no association with the party’s ideology. He asserted that Vande Mataram was “meant to be lived, not merely recited,” adding that those who were absent from the Independence struggle “can never understand its true essence.”

Yadav said the British once feared the song’s power to unite Indians, even branding its recital as sedition in some provinces. “Today, the ruling party seeks to appropriate every great personality, even those opposed to its core beliefs,” he alleged.

TMC MP Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar lauded Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as the “soul of India’s freedom awakening,” describing Vande Mataram as a “war cry that shook the British Empire.” She accused the BJP’s ideological forebears of “submitting mercy petitions to colonial rulers,” claiming that today their political successors were “trying to diminish Bengal’s cultural icons.”

Dastidar called Prime Minister Modi’s reference to Bankim Chandra as “Bankim Da” a “performative gesture.”

DMK MP A. Raja questioned the Prime Minister’s remarks, arguing that opposition to Vande Mataram historically arose from certain verses linked to idol worship and religious imagery.

“The Prime Minister must ask what kind of division exists today,” Raja said, adding that some communities considered the song exclusionary. Quoting a letter from Jawaharlal Nehru to Subhas Chandra Bose, he said Nehru had acknowledged that a few objections were “rational and historically rooted.”

TDP MP Dr. Byreddy Shabari described Vande Mataram as an anthem that transcends religion, caste, and gender to unite the nation, while JD(U) MP Devesh Chandra Thakur called it “the soul of the Republic and the voice of millions.”

LJP MP Rajesh Verma accused Pandit Nehru of “fragmenting” the song by removing its later verses, calling it a “dilution of the freedom anthem’s spirit.”On the treasury benches, BJP leader Anurag Thakur said Vande Mataram “energizes patriots and unsettles those opposed to the nation’s spirit.”

He alleged that the Congress “disrespected” the national song for decades due to vote-bank politics. He further claimed that Nehru omitted portions of the song to appease Muhammad Ali Jinnah, arguing that “the mindset of compromise eventually led to Partition.”

Citing numerous revolutionaries who revered Vande Mataram, Thakur said the song remained an eternal symbol of “national unity and patriotic fervor.”

Members of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and other opposition parties also accused the government of weaponizing cultural symbols for political gain, urging that Vande Mataram be remembered as a unifying cultural heritage rather than a tool for partisan debate.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar