- Vande Mataram made mandatory in all West Bengal government schools' morning assemblies
- Students must sing all six stanzas of the national song before classes start
- Central government gave Vande Mataram equal status to the national anthem in February
The national song 'Vande Mataram' has been made mandatory during morning assemblies in all government schools across West Bengal. The students must sing the six-stanza song before starting their classes, the new BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has ordered.
"Overriding the previous directive, the West Bengal government has made it mandatory with immediate effect for all schools under the Department of School Education to sing the Indian national song 'Vande Mataram' during the school assembly or morning prayer before the commencement of classes," Adhikari said in an online post.
'Vande Mataram', a rallying cry for freedom fighters in the battle to liberate India from colonial rule, had returned to political discourse ahead of this year's state election.
Read: Play National Song Before National Anthem: New 'Vande Mataram' Guidelines
In February, the central government accorded it a status equal to the country's national anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana', making it compulsory that all six stanzas are sung at all government and school events alongside the national anthem.
A grand event was also organised by the government, and a debate was held in Parliament to mark the 150th anniversary of the song being written by Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
Composed in Sanskrit, the six-stanza hymn was first published in the 1882 novel 'Anandamath'. Its first two stanzas were adopted as the national song in 1950.
Things turned political with the BJP accusing the Congress of trimming the song to just its first two stanzas to "pander to the communal agenda" by specifically removing lines that had mentions of goddess Durga.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in November that the removal of the four stanzas in 1937 sowed the seeds of Partition.
Read: Why Was Vande Mataram Chosen As National Song And Other FAQs Answered
"In 1937, significant verses of 'Vande Mataram', the very essence of its spirit, were removed. Stanzas of 'Vande Mataram' were broken up. This removal sowed the seeds for the eventual partition of the country. Today's generation needs to understand why such injustice was committed against this great mantra of nation-building. Because that same divisive mindset continues to pose a major challenge for the nation even today," he had said.
The latest controversy over the song played out during the oath ceremony of Chief Minister Vijay in Tamil Nadu earlier this month. The DMK took sharp jibes at Vijay over the national song being played in full before the national anthem at the Chennai event, with an editorial in party mouthpiece Murasoli describing it as "smearing the face of 'Mother Tamil' with soot."
