Only 2 Paras Of Vande Mataram to Be Sung: Karnataka Order Sets Stage For Row

"The State Government has considered it necessary to maintain uniformity, respect, and proper protocol for the playing/singing of the national song "Vande Mataram"," read the order from the Karnataka government

10 Sep 2026, 11:12 · NDTV

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The Karnataka government ordered only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram be sung at official events
The order aims to maintain uniformity and respect in singing Vande Mataram at state programmes
The decision opposes the Centre's mandate to sing the full Vande Mataram at government functions

What specific lines in the remaining stanzas caused the historical controversy?
Bengaluru:

The Congress government of Karnataka has issued an order standardising the singing of "Vande Mataram" at state government programmes and official functions. Only the first two stanzas of 'Vande Mataram' should be sung at Karnataka government programmes, the order said. The song, it added, played an important role in fostering nationalism, unity and patriotism during India's freedom movement.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has issued guidelines on the official version of the national song "Vande Mataram" and its singing or playing at various government and public functions, to be followed as appropriate for the occasion," read a rough translation of the order issued in Kannada.

Read: Analysis: War For Votes Over Vande Mataram

"The State Government has considered it necessary to maintain uniformity, respect, and proper protocol for the playing/singing of the national song "Vande Mataram" in accordance with the nature and context of various government programs and ceremonies held in the state," it added.

The decision of the DK Shivakumar government reflects the party's firm stance opposing the Union Home Ministry's order that the national song be sung in full at official events. Last month, the Congress Working Committee decided to follow its 1937 resolution that only the first two stanzas will be sung at party events.

Read: Congress Firm On 2-Stanza Vande Mataram, BJP Calls Party "Muslim League"

In February, the Centre had made it mandatory to sing the full Vande Mataram at public gatherings and official events and passed a Bill in Parliament to make it a criminal offence to disrupt or prevent the singing of the national song.

The Congress hit back saying its stand on Vande Mataram is in line with the top leadership's decision in 1937 -- made in presence of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel.

In August, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had drawn criticism for singing the "incomplete" version of Vande Mataram at an event in Goa. In response to BJP accusations of appeasement, he said he had sung the version sung by Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. If singing this version was a crime, police cases should be filed against those leaders too, he had told reporters.

Vande Mataram - penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in his novel Ananda Math - was first sung by Rabindranath Tagore in 1896. But Muslim League leaders objected later, calling the song anti-Islamic because of references to Hindu Goddesses. In 1937, the Congress Working Committee decided that only two stanzas of Vande Mataram will be sung.

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