Bill to give Vande Mataram statutory protection set for Parliament
text_fields
The Centre has listed a Bill for introduction, consideration and passage during the Monsoon Session of Parliament to grant the national song Vande Mataram the same statutory protection as the national anthem, making wilful insult or disruption of its singing a punishable offence.
According to a Lok Sabha Secretariat bulletin, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, seeks to amend the 1971 law under which disrespect to the national flag, the Constitution and the national anthem is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine or both.
The proposed amendment would bring Vande Mataram under a similar legal framework.
The Union Cabinet approved the proposal in May after the conclusion of year-long nationwide celebrations marking 150 years of Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875 and first published in his Bengali novel Anandmath in 1882.
The issue was debated in both Houses of Parliament in December 2025 during 10-hour special discussions on the song's legacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while opening the debate in the Lok Sabha, accused former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of diluting the song's legacy for appeasement politics.
The Congress opposed the timing of the debate, pointing to the role of its freedom fighters who had courted arrest while chanting Vande Mataram during the freedom movement. The government has maintained that the legislation is intended to formalise the song's status.
The government's legislative agenda for the Monsoon Session also includes the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which proposes stricter rules for registrations delayed by more than two years. Under the proposed changes, such registrations would require orders from a first-class judicial magistrate instead of executive magistrates.
Also slated for consideration is the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which proposes replacing the University Grants Commission, the All India Council for Technical Education and the National Council for Teacher Education with a unified higher education regulator.
The government also plans to introduce the Income-Tax (Amendment) Bill to replace an ordinance providing tax relief to foreign investors in government securities, and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2026, aimed at updating the MSME law and introducing a trust-based regulatory framework.