PM attacks Congress: Key verses of Vande Mataram dropped in 1937

NEW DELHI: PM Modi alleged Friday that in 1937 "significant verses" of 'Vande Mataram' were dropped, "sowing the seeds of the country's Partition", in what was seen as an attack on Congress in the midst of the Bihar elections and months before Bengal goes to the polls. Launching year-long celebrations to mark 150 years of the national song, where he recited all six stanzas, PM Modi warned that the "same divisive mindset" remained a challenge to the nation. "The spirit of 'Vande Mataram' illuminated the entire nation during the freedom struggle. But unfortunately, in 1937, crucial verses of 'Vande Mataram', a part of its soul, were severed. 'Vande Mataram' was broken, torn into pieces," the PM said without naming anyone. "Why was this great mantra of nation-building treated with such injustice? This is crucial for today's generation to understand, because that same divisive thinking remains a challenge for the country even today," PM Modi said.RSS never accepted national song, says KhargeTerming Congress the "proud flagbearer" of the national song, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge Friday said 'Vande Mataram', which was first publicly sung by Rabindranath Tagore at Congress session in 1896, awakened the collective soul of the nation and became the rallying cry for the freedom struggle.

He alleged RSS never accepted the song and has stuck to its "Namaste Sada Vatsale" despite the national song's universal reverence. Kharge said the song echoed across the land from the Partition of Bengal in 1905 to the last breaths of the country's brave revolutionaries, and terrified the British into banning it. He recalled that Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 wrote that 'Vande Mataram' had become the "most powerful battle cry among Hindus and Musalmans of Bengal during the Partition days", while Jawaharlal Nehru said in 1938 that "for more than 30 years now, the song is related directly to Indian nationalism.

" Kharge claimed the UP assembly started reciting 'Vande Mataram' in 1937. Party spokesman Jairam Ramesh said Sabyasachi Bhattacharya's definitive biography of 'Vande Mataram' gives the background to the CWC resolution of Oct 29, 1937, which adopted 'Vande Mataram'.