Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 22: In the aftermath of the students’ protest under the aegis of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) against question paper leaks that terminated in the resignation of the then union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the ruling BJP has decided to constitute a special team to reach out to the youth, specially the Gen Z.
The party sources said the decision was taken at a high-level meeting held on Saturday chaired by the BJP national president Nitin Nabin. The meeting was attended among others by the party’s newly appointed national office-bearers at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
Considering the importance of the youth in shaping the fortunes of the political parties, the BJP has decided to incorporate key leaders in the team who would be in a position to take spot decisions and solve the problems of the youths and students, if any. Mr Nabin himself would be in the team for the youth which would also include the former union minister Smriti Irani, who was recently inducted in the party’s national executive as one of the general secretaries. It would also include Vinod Tawde, Harsh Sanghavi, OP Choudhary, and several other BJP leaders.
The sources said the team would conduct special outreach programmes that would be aimed at reaching out to the youth, particularly the Gen Z. It would directly engage with them, getting an understanding of their expectations and concerns. The team, sources said, would also help the youth get connected with the BJP’s policies and the ideology.
Besides forming the team for the Gen Z, the meeting also adopted a 10-point resolution on “Vande Mataram” for the “preservation of the honour and glorious heritage” of the national song. The BJP’s resolution condemned the decision of the Congress Working Committee on August 19, 2026, reaffirming its 1937 resolution limiting the singing of only the first two stanzas of “Vande Mataram” at Congress functions.
The BJP regards “Vande Mataram” as India’s national song, an expression of devotion to Mother India, the mantra of the freedom struggle, and an immortal symbol of India’s national consciousness, the party said in a post on X.
Hitting out at the Congress, the BJP said ‘Vande Mataram’s’ legacy cannot be reduced for vote bank politics, while highlighting that no compromise would ever be done to honour its legacy. It also said special awareness campaigns will be conducted for the youth to make them aware about ‘Vande Mataram’s’ legacy.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party appeals to the people of India to remember that the words of Vande Mataram were once so powerful that an empire was shaken by them. The British tried to suppress these words because they awakened a spirit of resistance. Generations of Indians embraced them as a mantra of freedom, sacrifice and national pride,” the resolution said.
The resolution said the BJP considered “Vande Mataram” an immortal symbol of national consciousness and a glorious legacy of the freedom struggle.’ Condemning the Congress decision to stick to the first two stanzas of the national song at its meeting, the BJP resolution reminded the principal opposition party that no resolution of its working committee could override India’s constitutional institutions and the laws enacted by Parliament. A political settlement of 1937 cannot override a constitutional decision of 1950 and a law enacted by Parliament in 2026.
The party decided to oppose every attempt to subordinate the national song to communal pressure, political appeasement or narrow vote-bank politics.
The party said it would convey to the people the historic statement of Mahatma Gandhi in which he described Vande Mataram as an “anti-imperialist slogan” and associated with the “purest national sentiment.” It said the BJP would launch a nationwide campaign through which the history, meaning, national importance and glorious heritage of Vande Mataram would be spread to every corner of India.
The resolution said the party would also launch an awareness campaign so that the complete six-stanza National Song and its history were not forgotten and the coming generations can understand how deep memories of India’s independence, struggle, sacrifice and national awakening were associated with Vande Mataram. It said any compromise on the honour and legacy of Vande Mataram for political convenience or appeasement would not be tolerated by the party as it was not a matter solely related to any political party, but was linked with India’s honour and the legacy of freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the country.