Now Reading: Full Vande Mataram gets legal shield as President gives assent
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Full Vande Mataram gets legal shield as President gives assent
President Droupadi Murmu has given assent to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, granting all six stanzas of Vande Mataram the same legal protection as the national anthem.…
The Story in Brief
President Droupadi Murmu has given assent to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, granting all six stanzas of Vande Mataram the same legal protection as the national anthem. The full version was played before and after her Independence Day eve address for the first time. The law makes intentional disruption of its singing punishable by up to three years in prison.
The bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament in July after the government launched a year-long celebration of the song's 150th anniversary. Critics, including Frontline, note that Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore had opposed including stanzas that invoke Hindu deities, and that the 1950 Constituent Assembly had adopted only the first two stanzas. The government argues the truncated version had been a historical compromise that needed correction.
The Indian Opinion
The claim that restoring all six stanzas of Vande Mataram ‘wounds’ secularism is itself a political narrative. Gandhi and Tagore had genuine concerns in 1937; but 2026 is not 1937. The real question is whether adding verses that invoke Durga compels any citizen to sing them, the law penalises disruption of singing, not silent non-participation. Watch how this plays out in the first court challenge. Will the government clarify that no one is forced to recite every stanza?
Sources (2): frontline.thehindu.com, indiatoday.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
