# Mukesh Khanna wants Vande Mataram as national anthem 2026-08-23T10:53:17+00:00 | Entertainment | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Actor Mukesh Khanna, best known for playing Shaktimaan, has reignited a controversy by demanding that Vande Mataram replace Jana Gana Mana as India's national anthem. He claimed that Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana was originally written as a tribute to the British monarch. In an interview with ANI, Khanna said his comments were misconstrued but he stands by his view that Jana Gana Mana cannot be the national anthem. He argued that the words 'Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak' refer to the British ruler who determined India's destiny during colonial rule, and that Vande Mataram, expressing devotion to the motherland, should have greater national significance. Khanna told IANS he had earlier made the same demand three years ago. He claimed to have recorded a seven-minute version of Vande Mataram and expressed happiness that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made singing the song compulsory in schools and functions. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The debate over India's national symbols is not new. In 2018, a similar controversy arose when some claimed the national anthem was written for King George V, a claim historians have repeatedly debunked. Tagore's biographers note the song was composed in 1911 to welcome the king, but later repurposed by Tagore as a secular ode to the nation. The Constitution adopted Jana Gana Mana in 1950 after a Constituent Assembly vote. Any change would require a constitutional amendment with a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament, an unlikely prospect given the absence of any official proposal. The real impact is cultural: Khanna's remarks reflect a long-running sentimental push by some groups to elevate Vande Mataram, which is already the national song, to anthem status, a move that has found no legislative traction. ## Coverage - timesnownews.com Leads with controversy and drama, quotes contradictory claims without historical context, and frames the story around the actor's persona rather than facts. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Jana Gana Mana, Mukesh Khanna, Rabindranath Tagore, Vande Mataram Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/mukesh-khanna-wants-vande-mataram-as-national-anthem/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/mukesh-khanna-wants-vande-mataram-as-national-anthem/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/