Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers on Friday staged a protest outside the residence of Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Abu Asim Azmi in Mumbai, after he declined city BJP chief Ameet Satam’s invitation to participate in a mass recital of ‘Vande Mataram’ near his home, news agency PTI reported.
VIDEO | Mumbai: BJP workers stage a protest outside Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi’s residence over the ‘Vande Mataram’ issue.
Maharashtra Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi had declined an invitation from Mumbai BJP unit president Ameet Satam to join a mass recital of the… pic.twitter.com/sFvkmKBFQZ
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 7, 2025
Senior BJP leaders, including state Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar and Maharashtra Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, joined party workers in gathering outside the SP Mumbai unit head’s Bandra residence, where they recited the national song.
Speaking to reporters, Azmi said that Muslims who follow shariah would not equate anyone else with Allah, PTI reported.
Terming the BJP as “Bharat Jalao Party,” Azmi remarked, “They are worshippers of hate and want to divide the country on the basis of religion.”
“They want to suppress and weaken Muslims. Will I ask you to offer namaaz? Muslims worship only Allah and not zameen (the ground) and the Sun,” he added.
The BJP organised the recital of Vande Mataram to mark the formal launch of a year-long nationwide commemoration—from November 7, 2025, to November 7, 2026—celebrating 150 years of the timeless composition that inspired India’s freedom movement and continues to evoke national pride and unity.
The song was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterji on the occasion of Akshaya Navami, which fell on November 7, 1875. It first appeared in the literary journal Bangadarshan as part of Chatterji’s novel Anandamath.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress has accused the BJP of “misusing” the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ for “political polarisation” and “hypocritical nationalism”, PTI reported.
The Congress refuted the BJP’s allegations that some of its legislators had opposed the singing of the national song, describing the party’s “campaign” against Congress MLAs Aslam Shaikh and Amin Patel as “false, shameful, and condemnable”.
Congress Spokesperson Sachin Sawant said both Shaikh and Patel had clearly stated that they had no objection to the song.
“If BJP leaders wish to sing Vande Mataram, they are welcome to come inside our offices and sing, not outside to create a spectacle,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of deliberately targeting Muslim legislators to stoke religious divisions, the Congress said, “It is unfortunate that the BJP is trying to communalise an issue linked to national pride. This exposes its divisive politics.”
Sawant added that as the nation celebrates 150 years of Vande Mataram, the BJP is “misusing the occasion for political polarisation” and engaging in “hypocritical nationalism”.
“Vande Mataram is part of the Congress’s very soul. Our freedom fighters courageously sang it against British rule when the RSS had no presence in the freedom movement. Those who once opposed the Constitution, called the tricolour inauspicious, and refused to hoist it for 52 years now claim to be the sole patriots,” Sawant said.
While Vande Mataram symbolises the country’s freedom struggle, the BJP treats it merely as an electoral slogan, he added.
“For us, it’s a song of sacrifice and pride. For them, it’s a showpiece. They chant ‘Vande Mataram’ in public, but in their hearts they worship the anti-Constitutional hymn ‘Namaste Sada Vatsale’,” he charged.
Speaking to PTI, Congress MLA Amin Patel from Mumbadevi in Mumbai said the BJP had informed him that its party workers would sing the national song outside his office.
“I would like to welcome BJP workers with refreshments if they visit my office for singing Vande Mataram… I would have welcomed them personally, but they will come to my office when I am not around,” he said.
Patel added that the BJP remembers Vande Mataram only when elections are near and should not lecture the Congress or its workers on patriotism.
“Patriotism is in our blood,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
