Congress confirmed it will continue singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, citing a 1937 Congress Working Committee resolution supported by Rabindranath Tagore.
The debate follows Parliament's amendment to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which granted the song legal standing equivalent to the national anthem.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticised the 1937 decision as an act of appeasement, while Congress leaders argued the full poem contains imagery that could offend Muslim sensibilities.