Parliament on Thursday passed a bill making any insult to the national song, Vande Mataram, a punishable offence, with the Lok Sabha clearing the legislation via vocie vote amid Opposition uproar.
The government said the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, would accord Vande Mataram the same status as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. It seeks to make any insult to the national song a criminal offence.
Replying to a brief debate in the Lok Sabha, in which only two members participated, Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai said the Congress should have accorded Vande Mataram its due respect during its 76 years in power, but instead resorted to appeasement politics.
He said the Narendra Modi government was now giving the national song the respect it deserved. "For Ek Bharat, Shreshtra Bharat, we need complete (all six stanzas) Vande Mataram song," Rai said, concluding his reply 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 a disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing.
The offences are punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine, or both. A second and every subsequent conviction is punishable with a minimum imprisonment 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 debate, while amendments moved by the Opposition were rejected by the House.
DMK MP A Raja later tore up some documents and threw them towards the Well of the House.
Earlier, DMK MP K Kanimozhi opposed the Bill, calling it 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 two 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 six stanzas," she said.
BJP MP Sambit Patra said the Congress, during its 76 years in power, did not give Vande Mataram the respect it deserved as the national song.
Amid sloganeering following the passage of the Bill, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
The legislation is the first Bill to be passed by both Houses of Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session, which has been marked by repeated disruptions, largely over the NEET paper leak issue.
(With inputs from PTI)