{
  "id": 1065057,
  "title": "Kerala Opposition leader Pinarayi flays Congress for singing Vande Mataram in full at AICC HQ, several States",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/15/kerala-opposition-leader-pinarayi-flays-congress-for-singing-vande",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-15T15:32:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu",
    "slug": "the-hindu",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/kerala-opposition-leader-pinarayi-flays-congress-for-singing-vande-mataram-in-full-at-aicc-hq-several-states/article71350130.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Kerala Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan strongly criticized the Congress party for singing the full version of Vande Mataram during Independence Day celebrations at the AICC headquarters in Delhi and in Congress-ruled states like Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana. Vijayan accused the Congress of capitulating to the Sangh Parivar, a Hindu nationalist organization, and adopting a soft-Hindutva approach. He highlighted that the Congress had abandoned its own secular legacy by singing the national song in full, which he claimed was riddled with religious symbols unsuitable for a plural society. Vijayan recalled the Congress Working Committee's decision in 1937 to limit the rendition of Vande Mataram to the first two stanzas, as the rest of it contained religious symbols. He emphasized that while the singing of Vande Mataram is not mandatory under the Supreme Court's ruling and the new legislation, doing so as per the RSS's directives equates to betraying a secular society. A.A. Rahim, MP and national president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, echoed similar sentiments, attributing the full rendition of the song to the Congress's ideological vacuum, which he believed had been infiltrated by Sangh Parivar politics.",
  "summary": "The Congress, he alleged, had proved that it was committed to the Hindutva agenda of the RSS and not to India’s secular nationalism",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Indian Express - India",
        "title": "Kerala’s 3rd Vande Bharat Express upgraded to 16 coaches after 9 months: Check route",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/15/keralas-3rd-vande-bharat-express-upgraded-to-16-coaches-after-9",
        "published": "2026-08-15T14:34:36.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Hindu",
        "title": "Ernakulam –Bengaluru Vande Bharat gets 16 coaches",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/15/ernakulam-bengaluru-vande-bharat-gets-16-coaches",
        "published": "2026-08-15T15:23:25.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}