The Crossbill News Desk
The Congress on Sunday (November 9, 2025) intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks linking the 1937 decision to use only select stanzas of Vande Mataram with the partition of India.
The party accused the Prime Minister of distorting history and “insulting” both the Congress Working Committee (CWC) of 1937 and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose advice had shaped the committee’s resolution on the national song.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said that the Prime Minister’s comments were “shocking but not surprising,” arguing that they reflect the RSS’s historical absence from India’s independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.
“The Prime Minister insulted the CWC and Tagore is shocking but not surprising since the RSS had played no role in our Freedom Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi,” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader’s remarks came in response to the Prime Minister’s speech on Friday, where Mr. Modi said that “important stanzas of the national song, Vande Mataram, were dropped in 1937, which sowed the seeds of the partition,” adding that such a “divisive mindset” continues to be a challenge for India. The Prime Minister made these comments while inaugurating the year-long commemoration of Vande Mataram to mark 150 years of the song and also released a commemorative stamp and coin on the occasion.
In a detailed post on X, Mr. Ramesh cited historical records to counter the Prime Minister’s claims.
“The Congress Working Committee met in Kolkata, October 26-November 1, 1937. Those present included Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, J.B. Kripalani, Bhulabhai Desai, Jamnalal Bajaj, Narendra Deva, and others,” he wrote.
Quoting from The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Volume 66, page 46), Ramesh said the CWC’s 1937 statement on Vande Mataram was “profoundly influenced” by Tagore’s advice.
“The Prime Minister has insulted this CWC as also Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. That he should have done so is shocking but not surprising since the RSS had played no role in our Freedom Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi,” Ramesh reiterated.
He added that the Prime Minister should “fight his current political battles on current issues that are of daily concern to crores of Indians who worry about their present and future.”
Ramesh further criticised the government’s economic and foreign policies, saying, “His economic policies have sharpened inequalities. Unemployment has scaled new highs. Investment momentum has been lost. His foreign policy has collapsed. He stands thoroughly exposed. And all he does is abuse and defame India's first Prime Minister (Jawaharlal Nehru).”
The Congress general secretary also shared screenshots of the original 1937 CWC statement, which read: “Gradually the use of the first two stanzas of the (Vande Mataram) song spread to other provinces and a certain national significance began to attach to them. The rest of the song was very seldom used and is even now known by few persons. These two stanzas described in tender language the beauty of the motherland and the abundance of her gifts.”
The statement further noted that “there was absolutely nothing in them to which objection could be taken from the religious or any other point of view.”
It added: “There is nothing in these stanzas to which any one can take exception. The other stanzas of the song are little known and hardly ever sung. They contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in India.”
The CWC, therefore, recommended that “wherever the Bande Mataram is sung at national gatherings only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, the Bande Mataram song.”
The resolution also noted that a sub-committee — comprising Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Narendra Dev — would examine national songs and consult Rabindranath Tagore for advice.
On Saturday, Ramesh shared pages from Rabindra-Jeebanee, the authoritative Bengali biography of Tagore by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, published by Visva-Bharati, to show that Tagore himself had recommended using only the first two stanzas of the song.
“The Master Distorian of a PM must render an apology. He has insulted our founding fathers and most of all Tagore himself,” Ramesh wrote on X.
The Congress also demanded an apology from the Prime Minister, calling his remarks “shameful” and misleading.
“Tagore himself had suggested that the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram be adopted,” the party said, accusing Modi of distorting history to serve political ends.
According to excerpts from Tagore’s writings shared by Ramesh, the poet had written to Nehru: “To me, the spirit of tenderness and devotion expressed in its first portion, the emphasis it gave to beautiful and beneficent aspects of our motherland made a special appeal, so much so that I found no difficulty in dissociating it from the rest of the poem and from those portions of the book of which it is a part, with all the sentiments of which, brought up as I was in the monotheistic ideals of my father, I could have no sympathy.”
The party accused the Prime Minister of distorting history and “insulting” both the Congress Working Committee (CWC) of 1937 and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose advice had shaped the committee’s resolution on the national song.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said that the Prime Minister’s comments were “shocking but not surprising,” arguing that they reflect the RSS’s historical absence from India’s independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.
“The Prime Minister insulted the CWC and Tagore is shocking but not surprising since the RSS had played no role in our Freedom Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi,” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader’s remarks came in response to the Prime Minister’s speech on Friday, where Mr. Modi said that “important stanzas of the national song, Vande Mataram, were dropped in 1937, which sowed the seeds of the partition,” adding that such a “divisive mindset” continues to be a challenge for India. The Prime Minister made these comments while inaugurating the year-long commemoration of Vande Mataram to mark 150 years of the song and also released a commemorative stamp and coin on the occasion.
In a detailed post on X, Mr. Ramesh cited historical records to counter the Prime Minister’s claims.
“The Congress Working Committee met in Kolkata, October 26-November 1, 1937. Those present included Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, J.B. Kripalani, Bhulabhai Desai, Jamnalal Bajaj, Narendra Deva, and others,” he wrote.
Quoting from The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Volume 66, page 46), Ramesh said the CWC’s 1937 statement on Vande Mataram was “profoundly influenced” by Tagore’s advice.
“The Prime Minister has insulted this CWC as also Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. That he should have done so is shocking but not surprising since the RSS had played no role in our Freedom Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi,” Ramesh reiterated.
He added that the Prime Minister should “fight his current political battles on current issues that are of daily concern to crores of Indians who worry about their present and future.”
The Congress Working Committee met in Kolkata Oct 26-Nov 1 1937. Those present included Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, J.B. Kripalani, Bhulabhai Desai, Jamnalal Bajaj, Narendra… pic.twitter.com/bJb899UhQz
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 9, 2025
Ramesh further criticised the government’s economic and foreign policies, saying, “His economic policies have sharpened inequalities. Unemployment has scaled new highs. Investment momentum has been lost. His foreign policy has collapsed. He stands thoroughly exposed. And all he does is abuse and defame India's first Prime Minister (Jawaharlal Nehru).”
The Congress general secretary also shared screenshots of the original 1937 CWC statement, which read: “Gradually the use of the first two stanzas of the (Vande Mataram) song spread to other provinces and a certain national significance began to attach to them. The rest of the song was very seldom used and is even now known by few persons. These two stanzas described in tender language the beauty of the motherland and the abundance of her gifts.”
The statement further noted that “there was absolutely nothing in them to which objection could be taken from the religious or any other point of view.”
It added: “There is nothing in these stanzas to which any one can take exception. The other stanzas of the song are little known and hardly ever sung. They contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in India.”
The CWC, therefore, recommended that “wherever the Bande Mataram is sung at national gatherings only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, the Bande Mataram song.”
The resolution also noted that a sub-committee — comprising Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Narendra Dev — would examine national songs and consult Rabindranath Tagore for advice.
On Saturday, Ramesh shared pages from Rabindra-Jeebanee, the authoritative Bengali biography of Tagore by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, published by Visva-Bharati, to show that Tagore himself had recommended using only the first two stanzas of the song.
“The Master Distorian of a PM must render an apology. He has insulted our founding fathers and most of all Tagore himself,” Ramesh wrote on X.
The Congress also demanded an apology from the Prime Minister, calling his remarks “shameful” and misleading.
“Tagore himself had suggested that the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram be adopted,” the party said, accusing Modi of distorting history to serve political ends.
According to excerpts from Tagore’s writings shared by Ramesh, the poet had written to Nehru: “To me, the spirit of tenderness and devotion expressed in its first portion, the emphasis it gave to beautiful and beneficent aspects of our motherland made a special appeal, so much so that I found no difficulty in dissociating it from the rest of the poem and from those portions of the book of which it is a part, with all the sentiments of which, brought up as I was in the monotheistic ideals of my father, I could have no sympathy.”
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