New Delhi: In just about 15 minutes, and with only two members and the Union minister who presented the Bill speaking, the Lok Sabha on Thursday (July 30) passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, that makes any insult to the national song, Vande Mataram, a punishable offence.
The Bill was passed amid an uproar by the Opposition demanding Union home minister Amit Shah’s presence in the House, and his statement on the police action on protesters last week in the national capital. With Shah absent, the Bill was introduced by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai.
The debate only saw two MPs speaking, DMK’s Kanimozhi and BJP’s Sambit Patra. Attempts to bring amendments by DMK’s A. Raja were quickly drowned out as BJP MP Sandhya Ray, who was presiding on the chair, quickly moved to Rai for his reply and to move the Bill for passage. The Bill was passed by a voice vote in the din.
Kanimozhi opposed the Bill, calling it “Hindutva agenda which is being brought in masquerading as nationalism, which is against the people of this country and against federalism. You cannot impose nationalism by bringing a law.”
When Kanimozhi said that the House was not in order, and “this is not the way to debate and pass a Bill”, Ray did not say anything.
“This song goes against the secularism of this country. The founding fathers had the wisdom to stop only at two stanzas. Today, you are trying to polarise this country by making it compulsory and making it a criminal offence if all six paras are not sung. Tamil Nadu has a state song for over five decades, you are disrespecting the Tamil people by bringing this. You’re insulting several states, including Tamil Nadu, which have their state songs. Why are you dividing the nation like this?” she said.
“This government is anti-national, by imposing this song on the people of this nation. It is against the parliament of the country to pass this Bill in this din without a proper debate,” she said.
Ray then went on to call Patra, who spoke for less than three minutes, and said that the Vande Mataram Bill was not an ordinary legislation, as it gives legal protection so that people of the country can pay their respect to the song. He then questioned the Opposition for the uproar in the House, without raising any questions about why the legislation was being passed when the House was not in order.
His barely three-minute-long speech too was cut off just as he was going to blame the previous Congress governments for not giving the national song the same importance as the national anthem.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
