‘Vande Mataram’ Row: Pinarayi Vijayan Accuses Congress of ‘Soft Hindutva’
Thiruvananthapuram: Former Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the Congress of embracing a “soft Hindutva” approach after the full version of Vande Mataram was sung at official Independence Day programmes at the AICC headquarters and in Congress-ruled Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.
Vijayan also flagged a similar instance at the Kerala Forest Department headquarters, calling it a serious concern. He alleged that the Congress was moving away from India’s secular nationalist tradition and increasingly aligning itself with the Hindutva agenda of the RSS.
‘Congress has abandoned its own secular tradition’
Vijayan pointed to the Congress Working Committee’s 1937 decision to restrict the use of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at national movement events because of religious imagery in the later portions of the song.
He also referred to the Constituent Assembly’s 1950 decision recognising Vande Mataram as the national song, arguing that the first two stanzas were the ones intended in that context.
“By singing the complete version today, Congress has thrown its own secular legacy into the dustbin,” Vijayan said in his statement.
He also recalled that Vande Mataram was sung in its entirety during the swearing-in ceremony of an earlier UDF ministry in Kerala.
‘No legal compulsion’
Vijayan further argued that there is no legal requirement to sing Vande Mataram at government functions. Citing the Supreme Court’s proceedings in the Mohammed Saeed Noori case in March 2026, he said the court had made it clear that singing the national song at government events was not mandatory.
He claimed that even under the Centre’s latest amendments, refusing to sing the song does not constitute a punishable offence.
Against this backdrop, Vijayan questioned why Congress-ruled states and party offices were choosing to perform the complete version.
‘Congress copying Sangh Parivar agenda’
Vijayan accused the Congress of trying to compete with majoritarian politics by adopting positions associated with the Sangh Parivar.
He described the move as the latest evidence that Congress was becoming the “B-team of the RSS”, alleging that the party was compromising its secular political legacy in an attempt to counter Hindutva politics.
The remarks are likely to add another layer to the ongoing political debate over the official use and full rendition of Vande Mataram, particularly at a time when the song has become a fresh point of political contestation between the BJP, Congress and Left parties.
