New Delhi, Dec. 9 -- Opposition MPs, spearheaded by Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Gaurav Gogoi, hit back at the NDA-led Centre on Monday over the "Vande Mataram" debate, calling it an attempt by the BJP to take advantage ahead of the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, dubbed the BJP as "rashtra-vivadi" and not "rashtravadi", while Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Mahua Moitra accused the BJP's commitment to "this song is a badly scripted comedy". Initiating the debate in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed India's first PM and Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru for removing stanzas from the song, composed in the 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and said this was done under pressure and to appease the Mohd Ali Jinnah-led Muslim League. Hitting back at the PM, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi said, "Our Prime Minister wants to play his role in the upcoming Bengal elections. Also, it is their oldhabit to level charges against those who fought for freedom andmade great sacrifices for the country. Your aim is to keep us hovering in the past, to keep us looking at what happened earlier because this government does not want to look at the present and the future, it has not been capable of doing so."She added: "Today Modi is no longer the Prime Minister he once was. It is now visible that his confidence is waning and his policies are weakening the country..." Referring to the long history of Vande Mataram and why only the first two stanzas are used as the National Song, the Congress MP pointed out that an abridged version of Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana was made the National Anthem. "After India's independence, in 1950, Dr Rajendra Prasad declared this song as the national song in the Constituent Assembly. Many great men were present. BR Ambedkar and along with him Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of my ruling party colleagues, was present. The same two stanzas were declared as the national song. No one issued any objection," she added. "Are the people in government today so arrogant that they consider themselves greater than Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Dr Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra Prasad?..." Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi, too, criticised Modi. Taking part in the debate, SP chief Yadav alleged that the BJP wanted to "own" Vande Mataram just as "they want to own everything as well as the stalwarts who don't belong to them". "They are not nationalist but rashtra-vivadi people," he added. TMC's Moitra said, "The BJP's commitment to this song is a badly scripted comedy." Meanwhile, the BJP on Monday alleged that both Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remained absent from the Lok Sabha during the prime minister's speech out of a "sense of guilt" ....