NEW DELHI, Dec. 10 -- Vande Mataram may have been composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in Bengal but it transcended borders and became the chant for India's freedom struggle, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday as he attacked the Opposition for linking the debate on 150 years of the national song with the upcoming West Bengal elections.

Initiating a special debate on the 150 years of Vande Mataram in the Rajya Sabha, Shah attacked the Opposition Congress, saying that when Vande Mataram turned 50, it was reduced to two stanzas, which paved the way for appeasement politics and subsequently the country's Partition.

"Many people like me believe that if Congress had not divided Vande Mataram under its policy of appeasement, the...