The Vande Mataram bill, entitled the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was passed by Parliament, giving the national song the same status as that of the national flag, Constitution and the national anthem. After the Rajya Sabha passed the bill by voice vote on July 30, the Lok Sabha did so on July 31, and the bill is now being sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent. Deliberate insult to Vande Mataram or blocking its performance will be a criminal offence and will be punishable by a prison term of up to three years and/or a fine, the same as for the insult of the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana.

The existing Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act is already in place to punish insults to the National Flag, the Constitution of India and the National Anthem, and the amendment broadens its scope. Vande Mataram is a song by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay which is now added to that list for the first time since India’s Independence, nearly 100 years after its composition, and almost 80 years after it became the national song in 1950. The move, officials say, fills a longstanding gap in the law, in which the national song had cultural, but not legal, significance. Any deliberate act of insult, obstruction or disruption to this while the anthem is being sung will be punishable in the same manner as the punishment for insulting the national anthem.

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The passage of the Vande Mataram bill was anything but smooth this session, as in recent years. It was passed by voice vote after a brief discussion of just 14 minutes in the Lok Sabha, which was interrupted by continuous noise from members of the Opposition benches. Only three members of the Lok Sabha had the floor: DMK’s K Kanimozhi, A Raja and BJP’s Sambit Patra. The party member and chairman of the proceedings, Sandhya Ray, later said that all the parties had wanted a more extended discussion but repeated interruptions prevented that. The Rajya Sabha had passed the same bill a day ago by voice vote, making it a quick follow-up in the Lower House in the next 24 hours. Opposition MPs had moved amendments to the Lok Sabha, one of which was made by A Raja, but these were voted down by voice vote. Angrily, Raja reportedly tore up papers and threw them at the Well of the House before the Lok Sabha adjourned for the day, with MPs chanting slogans.

Kanimozhi was the most vocal critic, who had termed the bill as a “Hindutva agenda” which was being sold under the garb of nationalism. While the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram have been made the national anthem, the latter four were kept out of the anthem, she argued, as they could further aggravate social divisions in India, which is a religiously diverse nation. But, she said, it was not a law that could impose a sense of nationalism; the action was disrespecting federalism and the feelings of states with their own regional songs and identities. One or two more members of the Opposition rose to raise objections to the haste with which the Bill was passing and to the fact that the question of national identity and free expression was not receiving the floor time that it merits.

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In response to the criticism, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, who is pushing the bill through the Lok Sabha, stated that the issue of ‘Vande Mataram’ is not about mere law but ‘about India’s cultural heritage and the struggle for freedom’. He said that the Congress governments, which had 76 years to do so, failed to do so, and it was a sign of “appeasement politics.” The government wanted the national song to be respected along with the national anthem when the national anthem is played, and the Vande Mataram bill was not against any state, language, or ideology,” Rai said. In the ongoing celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, BJP MP Sambit Patra hit back at the protesters who were seen inside the House, saying, “The party is pleased that Vande Mataram is getting statutory protection during its 150th anniversary; it is not a matter of understanding the country, some MPs inside the House don’t understand the country”.

The timing of the Vande Mataram bill is deliberate. The government has been celebrating 150 years of Vande Mataram since its composition by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 2025 and 2026, holding various events and discussions.Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, was celebrated in various ways and discussions held by the government for 150 years since its creation in 2025 and 2026, with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and several government ministers speaking extensively about the song’s significance in the freedom movement during the Lok Sabha meeting on the anniversary of the song in the winter session. The Centre has also been promoting the singing of all six stanzas of the song in public functions, besides the usual singing of the first two stanzas in accordance with the Constitution of India, which was adopted as the country’s national song by the Constituent Assembly in 1950. The new law is considered the result of the campaign to mark that anniversary. But critics view it as proof that a cultural recognition has been “leveraged” for an unrelated criminal-law change that has been imposed without the publicity and debate that it deserves.

As both Houses have passed the identical Vande Mataram bill, no further steps are required in Parliament before the bill is sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan. The amendment is expected to be assented to by President Droupadi Murmu in the near future, which will be published by the Home Ministry, making it applicable across the country. A court will be able to consider such deliberate insults to Vande Mataram as burning, defacing or otherwise disrespecting a representation of the song, disruptions to its public rendition, on par with other offences against the National Anthem, including up to three years in prison, a fine or both, from that date. Like any anthem-related action, enforcement will be highly dependent on intent, with accidental misuse of the anthem unlikely to be a prosecution target, legal professionals say. Even so, some commentators have warned that intent requirements have been unhelpfully vague in the past, allowing for some discretion to apply the law in analogous situations.

The passage of the Vande Mataram bill is a symbolic step in the national debate on secularism and national identity that has gone on, with ups and downs, since Independence, when the issue of what stanzas of Vande Mataram to adopt was also a finely balanced one. The rapid, low-debate passage of the House and Senate has come in for criticism from Opposition parties, who argue the House should have had a fuller debate on this issue rather than one in the midst of shouting and walkouts. Leaders, meanwhile, are already promoting the new law as a major milestone in the current 150th-anniversary festivities.