Recital of full version of Vande Mataram at UDF govt. swearing-in in Kerala kicks up a row

Key points

• The recital of the full version of Vande Mataram at the swearing-in ceremony of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala on Monday (May 18, 2026) has kicked up a row with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] calling it a move that undermines secularism and pluralism and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s mouthpiece Organiser hailing it.
• In a statement issued in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday (May 19, 2026), the CPI(M) State secretariat said that the Congress Working Committee itself had taken the stand that performing Vande Mataram in its entirety of six stanzas was unsuitable for a pluralistic society.
• Parts of the song were trimmed as part of the official resolution of the Working Committee held on October 30, 1937. On January 24, 1950, the Constituent Assembly had clarified that only the first eight lines of Vande Mataram should be performed as the national song.
• Vande Mataram and the...