Amit Shah moves to criminalise insults to Vande Mataram with new Bill
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Following an advisory urging the complete singing of Vande Mataram, the full version of which remains controversial among sections of religious minorities who regard certain verses as akin to idol worship and therefore contrary to their faith, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to introduce a Bill to include the National Song in the existing Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which criminalises acts preventing the singing of the National Anthem or disturbing its rendition.
The proposed amendment would make it an offence, punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, to prevent the singing of Vande Mataram or to wilfully disturb an assembly engaged in its rendition. At present, such penal provisions apply only to Jana Gana Mana under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
The government has justified the legislation by invoking a statement made by Dr Rajendra Prasad in the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, wherein he observed that Vande Mataram, composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and celebrated for its role in India's freedom movement, should enjoy equal honour with the National Anthem.
The move comes scarcely four months after the Supreme Court declined to interfere with a Ministry of Home Affairs advisory on the singing of the complete song, noting that the circular was purely advisory in nature and carried no penal consequences. The Court had nevertheless left open the possibility of future legal challenges should the advisory be enforced through coercive means.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas has urged the government to withdraw the Bill, arguing that Parliament had consciously refrained from placing the National Song on the same statutory footing as the National Anthem.
He maintained that Article 51A(a) of the Constitution prescribes respect only for the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem as a Fundamental Duty, while the 1971 Act deliberately omitted the National Song.
Criminalising conduct relating to Vande Mataram, he argued, amounts to legislating what could not be achieved through executive advisories and risks substituting constitutional patriotism with coercive nationalism.