Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to sing the complete version of Vande Mataram without a teleprompter, escalating a political row over the rendition of India’s national song and drawing sharp rebuttals from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The challenge, delivered during a press interaction in Mumbai, came hours after the BJP criticized the Indian National Congress for deciding to perform only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at an upcoming party event. Raut’s remarks also targeted the government’s economic record, linking the symbolic dispute to rising inflation and unemployment.
What happened
Addressing reporters at the Shiv Sena (UBT) headquarters in Mumbai, Raut said the BJP’s insistence on the full version of Vande Mataram was performative. “There won’t be a teleprompter,” Raut said, according to The Times of India. “Let the Prime Minister and the Home Minister sing the full Vande Mataram without a teleprompter. We will see how many stanzas they remember.”
Raut was responding to BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra’s earlier press conference in New Delhi, where Patra accused the Congress of “insulting” the national song by limiting its performance to two stanzas. Patra said the decision reflected the Congress’s “anti-national mindset” and demanded an explanation from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leaders pushed back within hours. Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on X that the BJP was “manufacturing a controversy to divert attention from price rise, unemployment, and the Adani scandal.” He noted that the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram were adopted as the national song by the Constituent Assembly in 1950, while the remaining stanzas contain references to Hindu deities that some communities consider sectarian.
The Congress’s decision to perform only the first two stanzas aligns with the practice followed at official state functions since 1950, including Republic Day and Independence Day ceremonies. The full version, composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875, contains six stanzas. The third and subsequent stanzas invoke Goddess Durga and include Sanskrit verses that have been a point of contention for Muslim organizations since the pre-independence era.
Why it matters
The exchange marks the latest flashpoint in a long-running contest over the ownership of national symbols between the BJP and opposition parties. Since 2014, the BJP has positioned itself as the primary custodian of nationalist iconography, from the tricolor to the national anthem and song. Opposition parties have sought to reclaim that space, arguing that patriotism cannot be monopolized by a single political formation.
Raut’s teleprompter taunt serves a dual purpose. It mocks the BJP leadership’s reliance on scripted public appearances while framing the Shiv Sena (UBT) as a guardian of authentic Marathi and Hindu cultural identity — a space the party ceded to the BJP after the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena. Uddhav Thackeray’s faction has struggled to differentiate itself from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which governs Maharashtra in alliance with the BJP.
For the Congress, the controversy revives a familiar trap. In 2006, the party faced criticism when a government circular suggested singing the full Vande Mataram in schools on its centenary. Muslim groups objected, and the government clarified that only the first two stanzas were mandatory. The BJP has since used the episode to portray the Congress as appeasing minorities at the expense of national pride.
Analysis: The teleprompter challenge is less about the song than about the optics of competence and authenticity. By daring Modi and Shah to perform unscripted, Raut attempts to puncture the carefully managed image of the top leadership. The BJP’s response — focusing on the Congress’s stanza selection rather than engaging with Raut’s dare — suggests a strategic choice to keep the debate on ideological terrain favorable to the ruling party.
Background and context
Vande Mataram has occupied a contested place in Indian public life for over a century. Written in Bengali and Sanskrit by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay for his 1882 novel Anandamath, the song became a rallying cry during the freedom movement. Rabindranath Tagore set it to music in 1896. In 1937, the Congress Working Committee adopted the first two stanzas as the national song, explicitly setting aside the later stanzas to accommodate Muslim objections.
The Constituent Assembly formally recognized the first two stanzas as the national song on January 24, 1950, two days before the Constitution came into force. President Rajendra Prasad declared that the song “shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it.”
Despite this settlement, periodic demands for the full version have surfaced. In 1998, the BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh mandated the full song in schools. The Allahabad High Court struck down the order in 2000. In 2006, the UPA government’s centenary circular triggered protests from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. The government issued a clarification within days.
The current flare-up coincides with the run-up to assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Haryana later this year. Maharashtra is particularly significant: the Shiv Sena (UBT)-Congress-NCP (Sharad Pawar) alliance, known as the Maha Vikas Aghadi, is attempting to unseat the Mahayuti government led by Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the BJP. Cultural symbols, including the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the use of Marathi pride, have become central to the campaign narrative.
Raut’s invocation of inflation and unemployment reflects the opposition’s effort to pivot the discourse toward economic distress. Retail inflation stood at 5.08% in June 2024, above the Reserve Bank of India’s 4% target. Food inflation, driven by vegetables and cereals, remained above 9%. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy estimated the unemployment rate at 9.2% in June 2024, up from 7% a year earlier.
What to watch next
Three developments will shape the trajectory of this controversy.
First, whether the BJP leadership responds directly to Raut’s teleprompter challenge. Modi and Shah rarely engage with opposition taunts of this nature, preferring to let party spokespersons handle rebuttals. A direct response would elevate Raut’s stature; silence may be interpreted as avoidance.
Second, the Election Commission’s stance if the issue enters campaign speeches. The Model Code of Conduct prohibits appeals to caste or religious feelings for securing votes. While Vande Mataram is a national symbol, its sectarian associations could trigger scrutiny if deployed in a manner deemed communally divisive.
Third, the Congress’s handling of the stanza question in its own events. If the party sticks to the two-stanza format at high-profile rallies, the BJP will likely amplify the criticism. If it performs the full version, it risks alienating Muslim voters in states where the community constitutes a significant electoral bloc.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) faces its own calculation. Raut’s challenge positions the party as more authentically nationalist than the BJP — a claim complicated by the Sena’s own history of alliance with the BJP from 1989 to 2019. The Eknath Shinde faction has already accused Uddhav Thackeray of compromising Hindutva for the sake of the MVA alliance. Raut’s rhetoric may be aimed as much at consolidating the Sena (UBT) base as at damaging the BJP.
Conclusion
The Vande Mataram controversy illustrates how national symbols remain contested terrain in Indian politics, three-quarters of a century after the Constituent Assembly sought to settle the matter. The BJP’s emphasis on the full song serves its project of cultural nationalism. The Congress’s adherence to the two-stanza convention reflects both historical precedent and electoral caution. The Shiv Sena (UBT), caught between the two, deploys the teleprompter taunt to claim a space of unscripted authenticity.
Beneath the symbolism lies a substantive argument about economic performance. Raut’s pivot to inflation and unemployment signals the opposition’s preferred battlefield. Whether the electorate follows the conversation from the song to the price of onions will determine if this episode fades as a brief flare-up or becomes a sustained line of attack in the coming election season.
Sources
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/there-wont-be-a-teleprompter-sanjay-raut-dares-pm-modi-shah-to-sing-full-vande-mataram/articleshow/133438163.cms
Corrections
If you believe this article contains an error, contact Herald Express with the source URL and supporting evidence.
Story synopsis gathered from: Times of India – Top Stories — source
