President Droupadi Murmu gives assent to Bill making insult to Vande Mataram a crime

President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday gave assent to a Bill that criminalises intentional disruption or prevention of the singing of the national song 'Vande Mataram', giving it the same legal protection currently accorded to the national anthem, a government statement said

With the president's assent, The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, has become a law.

The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on July 30, while the Rajya Sabha had cleared it a day earlier.

The legislation grants Vande Mataram the same status as the national anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana'.

For the first time at the Independence Day function, Vande Mataram will be sung from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the Union Home Ministry said.

Earlier, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act prohibited intentionally preventing the singing of the national anthem (Jana Gana Mana) or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing.

These offences were punishable with up to three years of imprisonment, a fine or both, while a second and every subsequent conviction attracted a minimum of one year's imprisonment.

The erstwhile law did not accord the same 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 also within its ambit, so as to make such acts punishable," the Bill had said.

The president of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Rajendra Prasad, on January 24, 1950, stated that the song 'Vande Mataram' composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, which played a historic role in the Indian freedom struggle, shall be honoured equally with the national anthem 'Jana Gana Mana' and shall have equal status with it, the Bill further said.

Earlier this year, the Union Home Ministry directed that all six stanzas of 'Vande Mataram' shall be sung first when the national song and the national anthem are played together.

In an order dated January 28, the home ministry gave the first set of protocols for singing the national song, directing that six stanzas of it, having a duration of 3 minutes and 10 seconds, shall be sung at official functions such as the arrival of the president, unfurling of the national flag, and speeches of governors.

"When the national song and the national anthem are sung or played, the national song will be sung or played first," the order read.

The assembly where the national song is sung shall stand in attention, it said.

The order, which carried several directives, said that in all schools, the day's work shall begin with community singing of the national song.