New Delhi, July 30: 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, a day when the House also saw frequent disruptions due to unrelenting protests and sloganeering by the opposition over various issues.
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was approved by the Lok Sabha by voice vote after a very short discussion where only two members spoke.
The bill was approved by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The legislation will also grant status to Vande Mataram on par with national anthem Jana Gana Mana once it is assented by President Droupadi Murmu.
Responding to a brief debate in the Lower House, 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 the respect it deserves, he said.
“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 amendments moved by the Opposition were rejected by the House. A Raja of the DMK later tore some document and threw it towards the Well.
Vande Mataram Bill violates Constitution, secularism: Opposition
Leaders from opposition parties on Thursday criticised the Vande Mataram Bill passed by the Lok Sabha, alleging that it violated the secular character of the Constitution, infringed upon religious freedom and sought to impose the full version of the national song despite the Constituent Assembly having accepted only its first two stanzas.
DMK MP Kanimozhi stated that her party opposed the legislation, calling it an attempt to create polarisation.
“The Vande Mataram Bill is against the secularism of our nation. Our founding fathers were very clear that only the first two stanzas should be sung. Now, the government is insisting all the stanzas should be sung. It will hurt the sentiments of people of different faiths. Through this Bill, the government is trying to polarise and divide our country,” she told reporters in Parliament House complex.
DMK MP A Raja said he had moved an amendment seeking that only what was approved by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950, be incorporated into the law.
He accused the government of “committing fraud” by stating in the Bill that the Constituent Assembly approved the full text of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s composition.
“The Constituent Assembly accepted only two stanzas, in line with the decision taken earlier by the Congress Working Committee. The remaining stanzas were not accepted. If the Constituent Assembly approved only two stanzas, how can the government now go beyond that? It is unconstitutional,” Raja said.
He emphasised that leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Syama Prasad Mookerjee had agreed that only the first two stanzas should be used.
TMC leader Saugata Roy described the legislation as unnecessary. “This Bill was not needed. We have no objection to Vande Mataram being sung, but Rabindranath Tagore did not want the full Vande Mataram to be the national song. These people have gone even further than Tagore,” he said.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the legislation violated the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
“Vande Mataram involves worship of gods and goddesses and violates Articles 25, 26 and 29 of the Constitution. When you recite Jana Gana Mana, you see a picture of the nation, but Vande Mataram is a prayer. I am a Muslim, and I worship none but Allah. This is a grave violation of Article 25,” Owaisi said. (PTI)
