80th Independence Day to feature Vande Mataram
Vande Mataram will echo at the Red Fort ramparts for the first time on the 80th Independence Day, and all six stanzas of the national song will be played before the National Anthem at the conclusion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address.
The invitation cards issued by the Defence Ministry for the upcoming ceremony include all the stanzas of Vande Mataram. It will enable the invitees to sing along with the national song when it is played, it was learnt. They will also have to stand in attention. Top ministers, military officers, bureaucrats, diplomats, students, and special guests, who have excelled across fields, attend the ceremony and receive the invitation cards.
It comes just days after Parliament passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which extends to Vande Mataram the legal protection previously available only to the National Anthem.
The Bill makes intentionally preventing the singing of the national song or disturbing an assembly engaged in its rendition punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine, or both. A second conviction carries a minimum prison term of one year. The legislation is awaiting Presidential assent. The rendition of Vande Mataram is now mandatory at official ceremonies.
The invitation cards also include an image of Seva Teerth (housing the Prime Minister’s Office) and a list of fundamental duties. The invitation cards last year carried the watermark of Jammu and Kashmir’s Chenab Bridge, depicting the rise of ‘Naya Bharat.’
The entire event and Red Fort venue, this year, are themed around “Vande Mataram” to mark the 150th anniversary of the national song. Seating blocks are named after major Indian Rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, and Kaveri, using new folding hydraulic chairs.
Incidentally, the 77th Republic Day celebrations were organised around the theme of Vande Mataram, marking 150 years of the song. The tableaux of the ministries and the States were based on the same theme.
The Indian Army marked the Vande Mataram milestone by organising band performances in 18 locations across the country. The places where military bands performed included Naihati in West Bengal, where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who composed Vande Mataram in the 1870s, was born.
