Framing Vande Mataram as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s challenge to the British insistence on taking their national anthem to Indian homes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Congress during a discussion on 150 years of the national song , accusing the grand old party of truncating it to appease the Muslim League and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The PM said Jawaharlal Nehru agreed with Jinnah’s concerns about the song and important stanzas were omitted from it, putting the country on the path of “appeasement politics” that ultimately led to the Partition.

Modi attempted to lay claim to the legacy of the freedom struggle through the expression of reverence for Vande Mataram and tried to portray the Congress as the party that allowed the national song to be fragmented. The PM

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