Congress's Decision on 'Vande Mataram' Verse Count Sparks National Debate

There is a new debate all over the country these days about'Vande Mataram '. The Congress party has made it clear that it will sing only the first two verses of the national song in its programs. The BJP is calling it an insult to Vande Mataram. The Congress is saying that it is following the same decision taken in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in 1937, which was also accepted by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay composed'Vande Mataram'in 1875. He included it in his novel'Anandamath'( 1882). Originally the song is written in a mixture of Sanskrit and Bengali. There are a total of six verses in'Vande Mataram '. The first two verses describe the beauty of the motherland, rivers, fruits, green crops and cool winds. The rest of the four verses mention gods and goddesses and religious symbols. When'Vande Mataram'was first declared in 1950, the National Archives of India, the Nehru Working Committee recognized only two verses in October, according to the official records.