Manipur BJP stages protest outside Congress Bhavan over alleged disrespect to national song

The Manipur unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, August 16 staged a demonstration outside the Congress Bhavan in Imphal, protesting against what it described as disrespect to the national song Vande Mataram.

The protest was organised in response to allegations that Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had objected to the singing of the full version of Vande Mataram during an Independence Day event in New Delhi.

More than 50 BJP workers took part in the demonstration, carrying the national flag and posters of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who authored Vande Mataram. The protesters raised slogans and played the national song over loudspeakers outside the Congress Bhavan.

Addressing reporters, Manipur BJP general secretary K Sarat Kumar Singh accused the Congress of disrespecting the national song and said the demonstration was intended to register the party's protest.

"The Congress disrespected the national song. We are staging a protest against that. Speaking or moving when the national song is being sung is highly disrespectful," Singh said.

The BJP has accused former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of objecting to the singing of the full version of ‘Vande Mataram’ at an Independence Day event at the opposition party’s headquarters in the national capital on Saturday.

However, the Congress denied the charge, asserting that there was no attempt to stop the singing of the full version of the national song, and that Gandhi was only asking for a chair for party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, as he was standing for quite some time.

Last month, Parliament passed a bill that makes any insult to the national song a punishable offence. The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was passed by a voice vote in the Lok Sabha on July 30, a day after it was approved by the Rajya Sabha.

The law grants status to ‘Vande Mataram’ on par with the National Anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’.