BJP to mark 150 years of 'Vande Mataram' at 150 places on November 7; PM to attend Delhi event

New Delhi/Gurugram: 'Vande Mataram' will be collectively sung at events planned in 150 places of significance across the country to mark 150 years of the national song, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to attend one such programme at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi on November 7.

Addressing a press conference at party headquarters, BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh said the party plans to celebrate the milestone as a festival.

"Several programmes to celebrate the occasion will be organised across the country from November 7 to 26 (Constitution Day). Vande Mataram will be sung at 150 places of significance on November 7, which will be followed by a pledge for using indigenous products," Chugh said, adding poetry writing, recitation and painting will feature in these events across 20 days.

Information about PM attending the event at the IG Stadium was shared by BJP national secretary Om Prakash Dhankar.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the singing of the song Vande Mataram at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi," Dhankar said while interacting with mediapersons at the BJP office in Gurugram.

The places where the Vande Mataram commemorative events will be held include Kargil War Memorial, Andaman and Nicobar Cellular Jail, Odisha's Sawaraj Ashram, Shaheed Smarak Park in Agra and Namo Ghat in Varanasi.

During the conference, Chugh said Vande Mataram served as a slogan and a guiding mantra in the lives and actions of millions of revolutionaries during India’s freedom struggle.

"Many freedom fighters faced the gallows chanting Vande Mataram and endured the oppression of foreign rulers with this slogan on their lips," he said.

"The song was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875, and its first famous public rendition was done by Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta in 1896. By 1905, during the period of Bengal’s partition, the song had been set to the classical raga 'Desh Malhar' and had become immensely popular, echoing as the voice of the people," he added.

Dhankar, at the press conference, also said that the chief ministers of all the states will also participate in the programmes in their respective capitals to mark the special day.

Vande Mataram, an ode to the motherland, was adopted as the national song in 1950.