Former minister and newly elected MLA from Beypore, P.A. Muhammed Riyas, has demanded that the Congress and its constituent allies clarify their stand on the rendition of the full Vande Mataram at the UDF swearing-in ceremony.

Riyas stated that an attempt is being made to turn this into a religious issue, whereas it is fundamentally a political matter. He criticized the move as an effort to implement the Sangh Parivar agenda.

The CPI has also joined the criticism against singing the full version of Vande Mataram. Binoy Viswam responded stating that the decision not to sing the full version was a Congress decision, and Congress has now mercilessly violated its own stand.

The controversy began when the full version of Vande Mataram was sung at the UDF swearing-in ceremony in Kerala. Earlier, a similar controversy had erupted in Tamil Nadu when the full version was sung during a swearing-in ceremony there.

Only the selected two stanzas comprising six lines have been officially recognized as the national song. Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875 with just two stanzas. In 1882, it was published in the novel Anandamath with eight stanzas. The remaining stanzas contain references to Hindu deities, including Durga with ten arms.

In 1937, the Congress recognized Vande Mataram as the national song through a resolution moved by Mahatma Gandhi. In 1951, the Constituent Assembly officially recognized it as the national song but decided to include only the first two stanzas, as the remaining verses praise Hindu deities and could undermine India’s secular character.