Congress accuses PM of distorting history amid Vande Mataram row

The Congress party on Friday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of distorting India’s history and bringing “disrepute” to Rabindranath Tagore during a parliamentary debate on Vande Mataram last month.

In a post on X marking the 129th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Congress general secretary for communications Jairam Ramesh described Modi as “India’s greatest distorter of history” and alleged that the prime minister was selectively suppressing historical facts for political ends.

Ramesh claimed that during the special discussion on the national song in Parliament, attempts were made by the government to misrepresent the origins and evolution of the national anthem, in the process diminishing Tagore’s role.

He said Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had played a decisive role in settling the controversy over certain verses of Vande Mataram in 1937, a contribution Modi had “deliberately ignored”. Citing the historian Sugata Bose, Netaji’s grand-nephew, Ramesh noted that Bose had inaugurated the Free India Centre in Berlin in November 1942 and had chosen Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem.

"During the discussion on the national song last month in Parliament which had left the PM and his colleagues badly bruised and exposed, there had been attempts made to distort the history of the national anthem as well - bringing disrepute to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in the process," Ramesh said.

He further said it was Netaji who, in October 1943 in Singapore, adopted “Jai Hind” as the rallying cry of the Azad Hind government, a slogan Modi and the BJP rarely invoke, according to the Congress leader.

Ramesh also accused the prime minister of systematically eroding Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy, pointing to what he described as the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as the latest example. He recalled that Netaji was the first leader to publicly refer to Gandhi as the “Father of the Nation” in a radio broadcast from Singapore in July 1944.

“The prime minister is India’s greatest distorian,” Ramesh said, adding that the manipulation of history had become central to the government’s political strategy.

The comments come in the wake of a day-long parliamentary debate last month marking the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, during which treasury and opposition benches clashed repeatedly over issues of nationalism and historical interpretation.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led her party’s response in the Lok Sabha, strongly defending Jawaharlal Nehru and accusing the government of convening the debate with an eye on next year’s West Bengal assembly elections.

The Congress and other Opposition parties have repeatedly accused the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance of rewriting history and politicising national symbols. The government, for its part, has rejected the charge, with Mr Modi and ruling party MPs countering that the Congress continues to practise appeasement politics.

With PTI input