Modi Govt Places Vande Mataram Above National Anthem
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- India's Defense Ministry announced that for the first time in 80 years, 'Vande Mataram' will be sung before 'Jana Gana Mana' at the August 15 Independence Day celebration at the Red Fort, to mark the national song's 150th anniversary.
- The Modi government amended the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, giving Vande Mataram legal parity with the national anthem; insulting either now carries a three-year prison term.
- The BJP and Sangh Parivar have long advocated replacing the secular anthem — which celebrates India's diversity — with the full six stanzas of Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875, which invoke Hindu goddesses Durga, Saraswati and Lakshmi.
- Muslim organizations oppose the move as incompatible with Islamic monotheism, while DMK MP K Kanimozhi lambasted the legislation as a 'Hindutva agenda' that is 'against federalism' during a 15-minute parliamentary debate.
- Opposition-ruled Tamil Nadu and Kerala defied the central government: Tamil Nadu will sing state anthem 'Tamil Thaai Vazhthu' first, while Kerala will only perform the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, as Rabindranath Tagore himself recommended to Nehru in 1937.
Why it matters: The protocol change institutionalizes a long-standing Sangh Parivar priority — replacing India's pluralist anthem with a song explicitly invoking Hindu deities — and gives it the force of law with three-year prison terms. Federalism is now a live flashpoint: two states have openly refused to comply, and the Hindu-Muslim divide over compulsory singing has been sharpened on the eve of Independence Day.
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