Parliament criminalises insults to Vande Mataram
The Parliament on Thursday passed a Bill that makes any insult to the national song, Vande Mataram, a punishable offence, with the Lok Sabha clearing the legislation amid Opposition protests. The Rajya Sabha had passed it on Wednesday.
The Bill was passed by voice vote after the two members spoke. The amendments moved by the Opposition were rejected by the House. A Raja of DMK later tore some document and threw it towards the well of the House. Earlier, DMK member K Kanimozhi opposed the Bill, saying it is a Hindutva agenda masquerading as nationalism. “It is against federalism. You cannot impose nationalism by bringing a law. The song goes against the secularism of the country. The founding fathers had the wisdom to stop only with two stanzas, but today you are trying to polarise the country by making it compulsory and making it a criminal offence if we do not sing all the six stanzas,” she said.
Responding to a brief debate in the lower house, in which only two members participated, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityananda Rai said the Congress should have given Vande Mataram its due respect during its 76 years of rule, but instead it resorted to appeasement politics.
“For Ek Bharat, Shreshtra Bharat, we need complete (all six stanzas) Vande Mataram song,” Rai said, as he concluded his brief reply to the Bill with a chant of Vande Mataram.
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act now prohibits intentionally preventing the singing of the national anthem and the national song, or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing. These offences are punishable with imprisonment up to three years, a fine or both. A second and every subsequent conviction is punishable with imprisonment of a minimum of one year.
After the passage of the Bill, Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
