The Congress hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday after he attacked the party over the dropping of stanzas from Vande Mataram in 1937, saying Rabindranath Tagore himself had suggested that the first two stanzas of the song be adopted, and it was shameful of the Prime Minister to accuse the Nobel laureate of harbouring a divisive ideology.

The opposition party also demanded an apology from Modi over his statement.

In an apparent attack on the Congress, the Prime Minister said important stanzas of the national song, Vande Mataram, were dropped in 1937, which sowed the seeds of the partition, and asserted that such a divisive mindset is still a challenge for the country.

He made the comments after inaugurating the year-long commemoration of Vande Mataram to mark 150 years of

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