Amid the Vande Mataram political controversy, the Congress has documented an attack on the BJP

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh on Thursday released a set of 12 landmark letters, notices and resolutions on "Vande Mataram" and said the documents would help counter "misinformation" being spread by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his supporters about the national anthem.
In a post on social media platform X, Ramesh said that the collection brings together the writings and correspondence of many important figures of the independence movement and the early Republic of India, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, C Gopalachari and JB Kripalani. "To dispel all the misinformation spread by the Prime Minister and his supporters, this is a collection of 12 letters and notes written by several founding fathers of the Indian Republic, documenting their thoughts on Vande Mataram," Ramesh said.
These documents, from September 1937 to July 1939, cover the period when the place and procedure for singing "Vande Mataram" was being debated within the national movement. The correspondence reflects discussions between Congress leaders and other prominent figures on the historical significance of the song, its role in the freedom struggle and concerns about parts of its original text. The collection begins with a letter written by Rajendra Prasad to Sardar Patel on 28 September 1937. This was followed by an exchange of correspondence between Subhash Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore in October of the same year, including Bose's letter to Tagore on 16 October and Tagore's reply on 19 October.
The collection also includes letters exchanged between Bose and Nehru. Bose wrote to Nehru on 17 October 1937 and Nehru replied on 20 October. Tagore's letter to Nehru dated 26 October is also included. Among the key documents is the Congress Working Committee Resolution on "Bande Mataram" passed at Kolkata on 28 October 1937. The resolution is an important historical record of Congress's consideration of the song and the circumstances in which it could be sung or used.
The collection then moves on to the January 1939 correspondence. It includes a letter from JB Kripalani to C. Gopalachari regarding a note by Mahatma Gandhi dated 2 January, followed by a letter from Gopalachari to Patel dated 7 January. Govind Vallabh Pant's letter to Nehru dated 8 January and Nehru's reply dated 16 January are also part of this collection. The last document is a note by Mahatma Gandhi published in the weekly Harijan on July 1, 1939.
Ramesh's move comes amid a renewed political contest over the history, symbolism and usage of "Vande Mataram", with the Congress and BJP offering different interpretations of the events and decisions of the independence movement. Written by Bankam Chandra Chattopadhyay and included in his novel Ananda Math, this song became one of the main slogans of the nationalist movement in India. After independence, "Vande Mataram" was given the status of national anthem, while "Jin Gun Man" was adopted as the national anthem. The historical debate over "Vande Mataram" has revolved around, among other issues, the religious concepts involved in the original composition and the question of how to present the song in religiously and culturally diverse India.
By bringing together 12 documents, Ramesh attempts to place the contemporary political debate in the context of the writings and decisions of leaders who were directly involved in the issue during the freedom struggle. The Congress leader argued that the historical record provided a basis for understanding the party's position beyond current political claims. The matter became important again when the Congress Working Committee in its meeting on Wednesday decided that the party will stick to its historical stand of 1937 and restrict singing only the first two stanzas of "Vande Mataram" in official party programmes.
The Congress said the decision was based on the guidance and deliberations of other leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore. The party maintained that the first two stanzas, which focus on the praise of Watan Aziz, are appropriate parts to be sung in its official programmes. The CWC decision is expected to add another dimension to the ongoing political debate over "Vande Mataram", with the Congress seeking to highlight the historical context in which the national movement considered the use of the song, while the BJP has repeatedly tried to portray the song as a central symbol of Indian nationalism. Ramesh's collection, therefore, presents a record of correspondence between some of the most influential figures of India's freedom struggle, as well as contemporary controversy, showing that the question of "Vande Mataram" and its public use was a topic of discussion even before independence.