‘Want Kashmiris in jail?’: Omar Abdullah hits back at Congress over Vande Mataram advice

Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah during the inauguration of the international film festival in Srinagar on Monday. (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

Saying that the full rendition of Vande Mataram is a “statutory obligation”, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked whether the Congress wanted Kashmiris to be jailed for not complying with it.

“They (Congress) should have stopped this in Parliament,” Omar said while talking to reporters in Srinagar on Thursday. “But the law has been made… It is a statutory obligation”.

Omar said that wherever the national anthem is sung, the full rendition of Vande Mataram is legally compulsory. “This is not just for Jammu and Kashmir. This is for the whole country,” he said. “This will also happen in government functions in Congress states.”

The Congress and the National Conference (NC) recently sparred over the full rendition of Vande Mataram at the inaugural ceremony of J&K’s first International Film Festival in the presence of CM Omar and NC president Farooq Abdullah earlier this week.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal on Wednesday asked the NC to “honour the wisdom and judgement of our freedom fighters” and stand with the INDIA bloc in singing only the first two stanzas of the song.

The advice, however, didn’t go down well with the NC. Tanvir Sadiq, an NC legislator and a close aide of CM Omar, hit back while posting videos of Congress CMs Revanth Reddy (Telangana) and D K Shivakumar (Karnataka) standing during the full rendition of the national song.

Omar said that not standing up during the Vande Mataram could have legal consequences. “So, what does the Congress want? That Kashmiris should be put in jail for this reason?” he asked. “This is a statutory obligation.”

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Omar said he prayed the Congress come back to power and abolish the law that mandates the full rendition of Vande Mataram. “I pray that the Congress government comes (to power) soon and abolishes this in the Parliament,” he said. “We will have no objection. Our party has never accepted Vande Mataram. We will not accept it in the future either. But we will have to fulfill our legal and statutory obligations.”

What the Congress had said

“The full version of Vande Mataram sits uneasily with the syncretic and pluralist ethos that our freedom fighters envisioned and nurtured for India,” Venugopal said in a post on X, while sharing a video of the song being sung at the film festival.

“For us, the considered judgment of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Acharya Narendra Dev, Maulana Azad, Sarojini Naidu and J B Kripalani — shaped in no small part by the counsel of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore — remains paramount,” he added.

Venugopal also appealed to the NC, which is a constituent of the INDIA bloc and a pre-poll alliance partner of the Congress in J&K, to follow what he described as the freedom fighters’ considered position on the song.

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“With respect and humility, we would like our allies to honour the wisdom and judgement of our freedom fighters, and stand with us in singing only the version of this beautiful and historic song that they adopted,” he said.

“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,” he added.

J&K Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra, too, termed the rendition of the full version by the alliance partner a “matter of concern”. “National symbols, songs and traditions occupy a special place in the heart of every Indian. Their true strength lies in their ability to bind together a nation as diverse as ours,” Karra said.

“It is, therefore, a matter of concern that our alliance partners 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,” he said.

Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. Expertise and Experience Two Decades of Frontline Reporting: Bashaarat has spent 20 years documenting the evolution of Kashmir, from high-intensity conflict and political shifts to socio-economic development. Award-Winning Investigative Journalism: He is a recipient of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2012). This honor was bestowed for his reporting on the Pathribal fake encounter, a series of stories that highlighted his ability to handle sensitive human rights and security issues with investigative rigor. Specialized Beats: His authoritative coverage spans: Political Transitions: Tracking the shift from statehood to Union Territory, electoral dynamics, and the pulse of local governance. Security & Conflict: Providing nuanced reporting on counter-insurgency, civil liberties, and the impact of the conflict on the civilian population. Development: Documenting the infrastructure, healthcare, and educational landscape within the Valley. Academic Background: He holds a Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Kashmir, providing him with a localized academic and professional foundation that is rare in regional reporting. ... Read More