- Parliament passed bill making insult to Vande Mataram a punishable offence
- Bill grants Vande Mataram equal status to national anthem Jana Gana Mana
- Offence punishable by up to three years imprisonment or fine or both
Parliament on Thursday passed a bill that makes any insult to the national song Vande Mataram a punishable offence with Lok Sabha clearing the legislation amid din.
The government asserted that The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026 will grant status to Vande Mataram on par with national anthem Jana Gana Mana. It seeks to make any insult to Vande Mataram a criminal offence.
Responding to a brief debate in the lower house in which only two members participated, Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai said the Congress should have given Vande Mataram its due respect during its 76 years of rule, but instead it resorted to appeasement politics.
The Narendra Modi government is now giving the national song its due respect which it deserves.
"For Ek Bharat, Shreshtra Bharat, we need complete (all six stanzas) Vande Mataram song," Rai said, as he concluded his brief reply to the bill with a chant of Vande Mataram.
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act currently prohibits intentionally preventing the singing of the national anthem (Jana Gana Mana), or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing.
These offences are punishable with imprisonment up to three years, a fine or both. A second and every subsequent conviction is punishable with imprisonment of a minimum of one year.
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, extends these provisions to the national song (Vande Mataram).
The bill was passed by voice vote after the two members spoke. The amendments moved by the Opposition were rejected by the House. A Raja of DMK later tore some document and threw it towards the Well.
Earlier, DMK member K Kanimozhi opposed the bill, saying it is a "Hindutva agenda" brought masquerading as nationalism.
"It is against federalism. You cannot impose nationalism by bringing a law, the song goes against the secularism of the country. The founding fathers had the wisdom to stop only with 2 stanzas, but today you are trying to polarise the country by making it compulsory and making it a criminal offence if we do not sing all the 6 stanzas," she said.
Sambit Patra of the BJP said the Congress in its 76 years of rule did not give Vande Mataram the respect it deserved as a national song.
Amid sloganeering after the passage of the bill, Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
This bill is the first legislation to be passed by both houses of Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session which has seen frequent disruptions by the opposition, mainly over NEET paper leak issue.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
