Piyush Goyal celebrates 150 years of Vande Matram in New Zealand

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday joined the Indian community here in singing 'Vande Matram' to mark 150 years of the national song.

"From tomorrow, November 7, we are going to recite Vande Matram at 150 places with 150 people in attendance in each of our various parliamentary constituencies," he said while addressing the community here.

Vande Matram, an ode to the motherland, was adopted as the national song in 1950. The song was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875, and its first famous public rendition was done by Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta in 1896.