New Delhi, August 21, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Friday urged political parties and governments to shift their attention from the ongoing controversy over the rendition of ‘Vande Mataram’ to pressing issues affecting the country and the public.
Reacting to the debate over whether the complete song, only its first two stanzas or neither should be sung, Mayawati said politicising the issue was “not right”. She said her party viewed the latest parliamentary legislation concerning the National Song as part of a recurring political pattern in which governments alter laws introduced by their predecessors.
Mayawati said parties often engage in such disputes for political advantage or to divert public attention from their own shortcomings.
She called upon the Centre, state governments and political parties to give greater priority to matters of public interest, particularly unemployment among young people, the concerns of Gen Z students, the needs of Gen Alpha schoolchildren and the loss of life and property caused by floods in parts of the country.
Her remarks came amid an intensifying BJP-Congress confrontation over ‘Vande Mataram’. The dispute began after the BJP shared visuals from the Congress headquarters’ Independence Day programme on August 15, alleging that Sonia Gandhi had sought to stop the full rendition of the National Song and that Rahul Gandhi appeared uncomfortable.
The Congress rejected the allegations. General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said the entire song had been sung and explained that Sonia Gandhi’s gesture was related to arranging a chair for Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The Congress Working Committee subsequently decided to follow its 1937 resolution under which only the first two stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ are sung at party events. The BJP has criticised the decision as an insult to the National Song and accused the Congress of adopting a stance reminiscent of the “new Muslim League”.
The controversy follows Parliament’s recent passage of legislation extending statutory protection to ‘Vande Mataram’.
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