Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said the government was bound by law to ensure the full rendition of the national song, Vande Mataram, at official functions, hitting back at ally Congress over its criticism of the singing of the song at the inauguration of the International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir.
Abdullah said the issue had been "needlessly politicised" and maintained that the statutory requirement applied across the country.
"They (Congress) should have stopped this in Parliament. But, a law has been enacted. Now, in a function where two governors, one lieutenant governor, and the acting chief justice of our high court are present, the national anthem will obviously be played," he told reporters.
The chief minister said that wherever the national anthem is played, all stanzas of Vande Mataram have been made mandatory.
"This is not just for Jammu and Kashmir; it applies to the entire country. In states governed by the Congress, the same will happen at government functions," he said.
Abdullah said legal action could be taken against those who failed to stand for the full national song and questioned whether the Congress wanted Kashmiris to be jailed over the issue.
"This is now a statutory obligation. Even today, at the closing ceremony, a Union minister will be present. The national anthem will be played there, and the national song will be played too," he added.
He said the National Conference had not adopted the full song and would have no objection if a future Congress government revoked the requirement through Parliament.
"When the Congress comes to power, and I pray the Congress comes to power as soon as possible, they can revoke this in Parliament. Let them do it, we have no objection. In fact, as a party, we have never adopted Vande Mataram, and we won't adopt it in the future either. But whatever our legal and statutory obligations are, we have to fulfil them," he said.
Abdullah dismissed the controversy as an attempt to make "a mountain out of a molehill".
Omar' reaction comes a day after Congress general secretary K C Venugopal and J&K Congress leaders slammed the National Conference government over the singing of the full rendition of Vande Mataram at official functions.
“The full version of Vande Mataram sits uneasily with the syncretic and pluralist ethos that our freedom fighters envisioned and nurtured for India. With respect and humility, we would like our allies to honour the wisdom and judgment of our freedom fighters, and stand with us in singing only the version of this beautiful and historic song that they adopted. That version was chosen deliberately, to keep the song from being communalised , a threat as real today as it was then. Upholding it is how we uphold the secular, inclusive character of our Republic,” Venugopal said in a long post on X.
J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra also while hitting out at the NC government, said, “It is a matter of concern that “our alliance partners (referring to NC) chose to sing the full version of Vande Mataram, disregarding the considered evolution of the song’s place in India’s national life, not merely during the freedom movement, but through the constitutional journey of the Republic thereafter”.
The adopted version, he said, represented a conscious balance, preserving its historic and emotional significance while remaining sensitive to India’s plural ethos and the constitutional guarantee of freedom of conscience.