New Delhi: In a major move aimed at preventing insults to the national song ‘Vande Mataram,’ the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which seeks to criminalise the intentional disruption or prevention of the singing of the national song by extending to it the same legal protection currently accorded to the national anthem.
The bill provides for imprisonment of up to three years, a fine, or both for anyone found guilty of intentionally preventing the singing of Vande Mataram or causing a disturbance to an assembly engaged in singing it.
The legislation amends the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 and was introduced by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai.
The existing law penalises anyone who intentionally prevents the singing of the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, or disrupts an assembly engaged in singing it. However, it did not provide similar legal 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 within its ambit, so as to make such acts punishable," the bill states.
The statement of objects and reasons also recalls that on January 24, 1950, Constituent Assembly President Dr Rajendra Prasad declared that Vande Mataram, composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and closely associated with India's freedom struggle, should be honoured equally with the national anthem Jana Gana Mana and accorded equal status.
Earlier this year, the Union Home Ministry issued the first comprehensive protocol for the national song. In an order dated January 28, it directed that when Vande Mataram and the national anthem are performed together, the national song should be sung first.
The ministry also directed that the full six stanzas of Vande Mataram, with a duration of approximately three minutes and 10 seconds, be sung at official functions such as the arrival of the President, the unfurling of the national flag and governors' addresses.
The order further states that all those present must stand at attention when the national song is sung and that schools should begin the day's activities with the community singing of Vande Mataram.