Vande Mataram row: Congress, BJP clash over 3.10-minutes full rendition of National Song

The Congress and the BJP on Wednesday locked horns over the length of the national song, whose full rendition over 3 minutes and 10 seconds has become mandatory at official functions where Jana Gana Mana is recited.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had recently said the law criminalising insult to the national song was passed without discussion in Parliament, and appeared to have overlooked human nature, pointing to the time that Vande Mataram recitation would require.

“The President has assented to the #VandeMataram Amendment, passed without discussion in Parliament, which requires the singing of the National Song in full at the start and ending of any official function, in addition to the National Anthem,” he wrote on X.

“As one who greatly respects both, and can sing the first two stanzas of the former (but not the other four, which were never required till now) as well as the entire anthem, i would like to point to just one practical consideration our zealots appear to have overlooked: human nature. Jana Gana Mana requires audiences to stand respectfully and focus their attention for a reasonable 52 seconds,” he added.

BJP national spokesperson C R Kesavan termed Tharoor’s comments “callous” and alleged that Congress leaders “dishonour and disrespect” the sacrifices of generations of freedom fighters.

Taking on Tharoor, the BJP leader wrote, “Senior Congress leader states that the full original rendition of Vande Mataram, which takes 3 minutes and 10 seconds is too lengthy for people to stand through respectfully and patiently. Is this not extremely ironic coming from the servile Congress party, which for more than 75 long years has patiently and sycophantically been kowtowing to the Nehru-Gandhi first family?”

BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said the Congress leader’s “3 minutes 10 seconds” argument is a remarkably convenient way of avoiding the real history of Vande Mataram.

“Before lecturing the country about ‘human nature’, perhaps read the historians. R C Majumdar put its historical significance even more starkly: Vande Mataram sounded the clarion call of freedom, and the novel inspired Bengali youth to supreme self-sacrifice during the Swadeshi movement,” he said on X.

“...The Congress Working Committee subsequently settled on using only the first two stanzas at public gatherings, the very truncated version that became customary. So let us be clear about what is actually happening here. For decades, Congress first cut down a national song because of communal sensitivities, and now one of its senior leaders is worried that restoring the full song might take a few minutes too long. This isn’t about human nature. It is the old politics of appeasement dressed up as practicality,” he added in a lengthy social media post.

The government had recently issued detailed guidelines on the observance of Vande Mataram, directing that all six stanzas of the official version must be rendered first whenever the National Song and the National Anthem are performed together. According to the Union Home Ministry, the full six-stanza version is to be sung or played on key state occasions such as the arrival of the President, the unfurling of the National Flag, and addresses by Governors, among other formal events.

Under these directions, the official version of the National Song shall be played on the occasion of Civil Investitures, upon arrival and departure of the President and Governor at formal State functions and other functions organised by the Government. It should also be played immediately before and after the President addresses the Nation over All India Radio-Akashvani and Television, and when the National Flag is brought on parade.

The Ministry further added that people present at assemblies where the national song is performed must stand in an attention posture.