President Murmu gives assent to Bill criminalising insult to Vande Mataram

President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday (August 11, 2026) gave assent to a Invoice that criminalises intentional disruption or prevention of the singing of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’, giving it the identical authorized safety presently accorded to the nationwide anthem, a authorities assertion mentioned. With the President’s assent, the Prevention of Insults to Nationwide Honour (Modification) Invoice, 2026, has grow to be a regulation.

The Lok Sabha had handed the Invoice on July 30, whereas the Rajya Sabha had cleared it a day earlier.

The laws grants Vande Mataram the identical standing because the nationwide anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’.

For the primary time on the Independence Day perform, Vande Mataram will be sung from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the Union Dwelling Ministry mentioned.

Earlier, the Prevention of Insults to Nationwide Honour Act prohibited deliberately stopping the singing of the nationwide anthem (Jana Gana Mana) or inflicting disturbance to any meeting engaged in such singing.

These offences had been punishable with as much as three years of imprisonment, a high-quality or each, whereas a second and each subsequent conviction attracted a minimal of 1 yr’s imprisonment.

The erstwhile regulation didn’t accord the identical safety for the nationwide tune.

“Presently, there is no such thing as a particular authorized provision to stop insults to the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’, which is honoured because the nationwide tune. Subsequently, to ban any individual from deliberately stopping the singing of the nationwide tune or inflicting disturbance to any meeting engaged in such singing, it’s proposed to amend Part 3 of the mentioned Act to incorporate the nationwide tune additionally inside its ambit, to make such acts punishable,” the Invoice had mentioned.

The President of the Constituent Meeting, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, on January 24, 1950, said that the tune ‘Vande Mataram’ composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, which performed a historic function within the Indian freedom battle, shall be honoured equally with the nationwide anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and shall have equal standing with it, the Invoice additional mentioned.

Earlier this yr, the Union Dwelling Ministry directed that every one six stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ shall be sung first when the nationwide tune and the nationwide anthem are performed collectively.

In an order dated January 28, the house ministry gave the primary set of protocols for singing the nationwide tune, directing that six stanzas of it, having a period of three minutes and 10 seconds, shall be sung at official features such because the arrival of the president, unfurling of the nationwide flag, and speeches of governors.

“When the nationwide tune and the nationwide anthem are sung or performed, the nationwide tune will probably be sung or performed first,” the order learn.

The Meeting the place the nationwide tune is sung shall stand in consideration, it mentioned.

The order, which carried a number of directives, mentioned that in all faculties, the day’s work shall start with group singing of the nationwide tune.