Overview
- Across three days of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha discussions on the song’s 150th year, the BJP alleged Jawaharlal Nehru yielded to Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1937, casting the truncation as appeasement.
- Congress MP Jairam Ramesh accused the government of distorting history, citing letters among Rajendra Prasad, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and others and a 28 October 1937 CWC resolution attended by Gandhi, Patel and Nehru.
- Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP members argued that limiting the song initiated appeasement politics, which they linked to currents that culminated in Partition.
- The row widened to current politics, with a BJP MP alleging a “silent demographic invasion” in West Bengal, while Opposition leaders called the exercise a diversion from unemployment and rising prices.
- Policy moves followed the debate, as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the song will be mandatory in state schools and Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty urged its introduction in classrooms nationwide.