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Sibal asks if Modi and Vajpayee sang full Vande Mataram
The Hindu··21 Aug
On 21 August 2026, Kapil Sibal asked Home Minister Amit Shah whether the BJP had sung all stanzas of Vande Mataram at private and official functions since 1950, and whether Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister or Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister had done so. He asked if those who skipped the full song were then anti-national.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If you attend a Congress function, the CWC has restated that only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram will be sung there.
- Anyone at a government programme is under the Centre's stated rule that the full song is to be used, which Shah says now has legal backing.
- If you are trying to follow the argument, Sibal's question is historical practice by BJP leaders, not a new court case.
What's Happening
- The exchange followed CWC's Wednesday resolution and Shah's Thursday briefing. Sibal posted on Friday morning.
- BJP president Nitin Nabin had already attacked Congress for limiting the song to two stanzas after an Independence Day event row.
- Ramesh defended two stanzas as the 1937 All India Congress Committee position for national gatherings.
Why Two Stanzas Became The Official Habit
- In 1937 the Congress Working Committee, after debate with Tagore and others, recommended that only the first two stanzas be sung at national gatherings because later stanzas use Hindu goddess imagery some Muslims objected to.
- Vande Mataram is the national song, not the national anthem. Jana Gana Mana has a separate, settled official version.
- The 150th-year government push to sing the full poem in official programmes is the policy Shah says Congress is now defying at its own meetings.
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