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New Delhi, July 29:

A bill to criminalise intentional disruption or prevention of the singing of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’, giving it the same legal protection currently accorded to the national anthem, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, provides for a three-year imprisonment, fine, or both for anyone found guilty of intentionally preventing or causing a disturbance to any assembly engaged in singing the national song.

The bill to amend the existing law — The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 — was introduced by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai.

The existing law provided punishment for intentionally preventing the singing of the national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in singing it. However, the law did not accord the same protection for the national song.

“Presently, there is no specific legal provision to prevent insults to the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’, which is honoured as the national song. Therefore, in order to prohibit any person from intentionally preventing the singing of the national song or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing, it is proposed to amend Section 3 of the said Act to include the national song also within its ambit, so as to make such acts punishable,” the bill said.

It said the President of the Constituent Assembly held on January 24, 1950, Dr Rajendra Prasad, stated that the song ‘Vande Mataram’ composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, which played a historic role in the Indian freedom struggle, shall be honoured equally with the national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and shall have equal status with it.

Earlier this year, the Union Home Ministry directed that all six stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ shall be sung first when the national song and the national anthem are played together.

In an order dated January 28, the home ministry gave the first set of protocols for singing the national song, directing that six stanzas of it, having a duration of 3 minutes and 10 seconds, shall be sung at official functions such as the arrival of the President, unfurling of the national flag, and speeches of governors.

“When the national song and the national anthem are sung or played, the national song will be sung or played first,” the order read.

The assembly where the national song is sung shall stand in attention, it said.