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Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a video clip over X on Tuesday, where historian Sugata Bose is seen sharing that the party’s decision to only sing the first part of the “Vande Mataram” song at national meetings in 1937 was based on Rabindranath Tagore’s advice.
The party’s post comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Congress, alleging that Jawaharlal Nehru betrayed “Vande Mataram” by bowing to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s opposition to the national song that led to it being fragmented. “It is unfortunate for the country that Congress compromised on Vande Mataram. They bowed to the Muslim League and decided to fragment Vande Mataram,” he alleged.
Nehru pandered to Jinnah’s communal concerns and put India on the path of appeasement politics, Modi said in his speech during the day-long debate on the 150th anniversary of “Vande Mataram” on Monday.
Sugata Bose, one of India’s finest historians, is a Professor at Harvard University and also Director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata. He was a Lok Sabha MP during 2014-2019.
He is the grandson of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s brother Sarat Chandra Bose and is the author… pic.twitter.com/j0J0q9x9pb
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) December 9, 2025
Congress responds to ‘Jinnah’ jibe
The Congress party, in response, shared a post in which Sugata Bose is talking about the relations between Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The party alleged that Bose’s comments “further expose” PM Modi.
“Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru worked very closely at the time of the All India Congress Committee’s meeting in Calcutta in October-November of 1937. At that time both of them consulted Rabindranath Tagore on a very sensitive subject and that was the song Vande Mataram,” Sugata Bose said in the video.
“It was on Rabindranath’s advice that the Congress decided at this AICC meeting that from now on, at national meetings only the first part of the song, which is a beautiful evocation of the national splendour of our country, would be performed,” the historian stated.
“And that was because Tagore felt that we needed unity and good sense in our nationalist movement and he did not want a rivalry between different religious communities. So already from that point onwards they were coming close together and Mahatma Gandhi decided that Subhas Chandra Bose would be the president of the Congress, and he would be Jawaharlal Nehru’s successor in 1938,” Bose added.
So that year was the coming together of the different strands of the Congress, he said.
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Posting the video, Ramesh said, “Sugata Bose, one of India’s finest historians, is a Professor at Harvard University and also Director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata. He was a Lok Sabha MP during 2014-2019.”
He is the grandson of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s brother Sarat Chandra Bose and is the author of several definitive books on Netaji, the Congress leader said, adding “This conversation further exposes the PM.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accuses BJP of ‘sin’ over Vande Mataram row
On Monday, the day-long debate saw the treasury and opposition members locked in a verbal duel on a series of issues, including nationalism.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra delivered the Congress’ response in a measured attack to defend Nehru and the party. She claimed that the government sought the special discussion keeping in mind the assembly elections in West Bengal next year.
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Vadra accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of committing a “big sin” by creating a controversy over “Vande Mataram,” and Modi of “selectively” quoting Nehru. She also wanted the government to “understand” the real “Vande Mataram” chronology.
While the Congress and other Opposition parties accused the BJP-led NDA government of rewriting history and giving a political colour to the debate, Modi and other members from the treasury benches accused the Congress of resorting to appeasement politics.
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