EARLIER THIS WEEK, both the Houses of Parliament passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, initiated by the Modi regime, after it restored, in February 2026, the last four stanzas of Vande Mataram, earlier dropped by Rabindranath Tagore and the Constituent Assembly in 1950.
Section 3 of the Bill notes that:
“Whoever, intentionally—
(a) prevents the singing of the National Anthem or the National Song; or
(b) causes disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”
The import of such a legislation could be better appreciated in the backdrop of the commencement of the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram in November 2025 and the fabricated remarks made by the BJP that the Congress party, “brazenly pandering to its communal agenda under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted only a truncated version as the party’s national song in 1937.”
Prime Minister Modi aggravated it by his egregious utterances that dropping of important stanzas of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ in 1937 sowed the seeds of partition of India. All such fallacious observations represented distortion of history.
Tagore and Vande Mataram
Therefore, the contents and import of the above Bill providing penal measures has to be located in the context of the restoration of the last four stanzas of Vande Mataram which were, in fact, dropped by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. His robust reasoning and convincing logic to retain only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram were outlined on October 30, 1937 in his article “Vande Mataram.” He remarked in it that he himself discarded the last four stanzas when he first sang the opening stanza in the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta, organised under the leadership of its President, Rahmatullah Sayani.
Justifying his decision to drop the last four stanzas he poetically wrote, “To me, the spirit of tenderness and devotion expressed in its first portion and the emphasis it gave to the beautiful and beneficent aspects of our Motherland made a special appeal, so much so that I found no difficulty in dissociating it from the rest of the poem and from those portions of the book of which it is part, with all the sentiments of which, brought up as I was in this monotheistic ideals of my father, I could have no sympathy.”
He explained that Vande Mataram first played the role of national anthem uniting people of all faiths, in his words, “against the decree of separation” hurled upon Bengal (partition of Bengal in 1905) and later became a national slogan during freedom movement for liberating our country from colonial rule.
“I freely concede,” he remarked, “that the whole of Bankim's Vande Mataram poem, read together with its context, is liable to be interpreted in ways that might wound Muslim susceptibilities…”
He then firmly put forth that “… national song, though derived from it, which has spontaneously come to consist only of the first two stanzas of the original poem and need not remind us every time of the whole of it, much less of the story with which it was accidentally associated.” Those first two stanzas according to Tagore “acquired a separate individuality and an inspiring significance of its own” and so, he saw nothing in it “to offend any sect or community.”
Mahatma Gandhi in his speech at a prayer meeting in Calcutta on August 23, 1947, recalled how in 1937 had Tagore decided to retain the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram as those were free from any objection and that decision was respectfully accepted by both the Hindu and the Muslim members of the Congress Working Committee.
So, the restoration of the four stanzas of Vande Mataram by the Modi regime in February this year is inconsistent with Tagore’s decision anchored in cogent and persuasive reasoning and has the strong potentiality of creating conditions “to offend any sect or community”.
Therefore, the aforementioned Bill prescribing punishment and fine or both to those who would prevent the singing, among others, of the National song or cause disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing should be seen with scepticism in the context of Tagore’s sublime intention not “to offend any sect or community” by the act of recitation of Vande Mataram.
The National Honour Act, 1971
It is salutary to recall the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 (‘1971 Act’). It was initiated by the then Indira Gandhi regime on the ground, as mentioned in its Statement of Objects and Reasons, that “Disrespect to the National Flag, the Constitution or the National Anthem is not punishable under the existing law.”
So the Act enshrined in Section 3 that “Whoever intentionally prevents the singing of the Indian National Anthem or causes disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.” It is pertinent to mention that in the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the 1971 Act it was provided categorically that, “The scope of the law is restricted to overt acts of insult to, and attacks on, the national symbols by burning, trampling, defiling or mutilating in public. It is not intended to prohibit honest and bona fide criticism of the symbols, and express provision to this effect has been made in the Bill.” Such a provision upholding critical remarks embraces dissent which is trampled upon during the Modi regime.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill , 2026, states that in the absence of specific legal provision to prevent insults to the singing of Vande Mataram, which is honoured as the National Song, aforementioned penal action has been prescribed.
The crucial point is that the 2026 Bill as passed by Parliament was initiated after restoring Vande Mataram’s four stanzas excised by Tagore based on his considered reasoning.
Vande Mataram in the Constituent Assembly
Speaking on January 24, 1950 in the Assembly, the President of the Constituent Assembly Rajendra Prasad said, “The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it”.
Prasad clarified before making the above statement that, “At one time it was thought that the matter might be brought up before the House and a decision taken by the House by way of a resolution. But it has been felt that, instead of taking a formal decision by means of a resolution, it is better if I make a statement with regard to the National Anthem”.
That statement covered only the first two paras of Vande Mataram by excluding those dropped by Tagore.
Apprehensions on 2026 Legislation
So, the 2026 legislation providing punishment to prevent insults to the singing of the national song has the potentiality of being used to target people who based on their faith showed reluctance to respect those dropped stanzas invoking Goddess of another faith.
Indian Express on July 31, 2026 in an editorial “On Vande Mataram, a law in search of a crime” wrote, “In essence, it is a law in search of a crime. At best, it is superfluous and at worst, a blunt instrument in the hands of an overzealous prosecutorial machinery.”
Quoting the data from the National Records Bureau, it referred to 1,102 arrests under the 1971 Act between 2014 and 2024 and stated that it resulted in 60 convictions. It noted that, “Acquittals outpaced convictions each year, and an average of 48 cases were pending investigation and 221 cases pending trial in the same period.” Adding further it revealed that “The rate of “crimes against national symbols” per lakh population is extremely low. By all accounts, then, the amended law expands the ambit of criminality with little justification.”
It then sharply observed that, “In the current context, too, the government frequently invites accusations of weaponising the criminal justice system to target opponents. The 2026 Amendment can only deepen apprehensions of its misuse.”
So Tagore’s prophetic remarks that he retained the first two stanzas not “to offend any sect or community” offers vital lessons not to weaponise the 2026 amendment to target people.
”It should never be a chant to insult Muslims”: Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi described Vande Mataram as an “an ode to Mother India” and he made it clear that “It should never be a chant to insult or offend the Muslims”.
In his book Constructive Programme, Gandhi appealed to the students that, among others, Vande Mataram should not be imposed on others.
Those remarks of Tagore and Gandhi constitute categorical imperatives for the powers that be to eschew muscular approaches to weaponise the Vande Mataram law against our own citizens.
