Division of Vande Mataram song led to partition of India: Amit Shah

The division of 'Vande Mataram' song for "politics of appeasement" led to partition of India, Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, as he slammed Opposition for linking the debate on 150 years of the national song with the upcoming West Bengal elections. Initiating the debate in the House, Shah said Vande Mataram was the "mantra" that awakened India's cultural nationalism, and remains as relevant today as it was during the freedom struggle. He Shah also attacked Congress for questioning the need for a debate on Vande Mataram, and accused first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of "dividing" the poem and limiting it to two stanzas. He stressed that the song will remain relevant in the days to come as well, in taking the country towards Viksit Bharat. "The need for discussion...was as relevant when the song was written, during the freedom movement, today, and will be as relevant in 2047 when the Viksit Bharat would be achieved," Shah said.

VIDEO | Parliament Winter Session: On Opposition MPs questioning need for debate in Parliament, Home Minister Amit Shah (@AmitShah) says, "Vande Mataram was needed during freedom struggle, even now as well as when country becomes Viksit Bharat in 2047... Some people think that we… pic.twitter.com/u2RDI3DebH

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 9, 2025

Participating in the discussion, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said Congress made Vande Mataram, the slogan during the freedom struggle. He said, when Mahatma Gandhi started the non-cooperation movement in 1921, lakhs of freedom fighters from the Congress went to jail chanting Vande Mataram. Mr Kharge said, the song Vande Mataram entered public life in India when Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore first sang it at the Congress session in Calcutta in 1896.“PM Modi and Amit Shah leave no chance to insult Jawaharlal Nehru, and other Congress leaders,” Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, added. “But that is only natural,” he quipped, “Wherever PM goes, Amit Shah follows!”

Delhi: Congress President and Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge says, "When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921, countless Congress freedom fighters went to jail chanting slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai,’ ‘Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai,’ and… pic.twitter.com/CmeiVsItRy

— IANS (@ians_india) December 9, 2025

Kharge accused the government of maintaining “complete silence” US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he had helped resolve the India-Pakistan conflict. Raising the issue during proceedings in the Rajya Sabha, Kharge said the government owed Parliament and the country a clarification on the remarks made by Trump in various public forums.