Centre Makes Vande Mataram Mandatory Before National Anthem At All Events; Issues New Guidelines

New Delhi: The Union Government has issued certain new guidelines for playing Vande Mataram including that it must be played  before the national anthem, at all government events and in all schools.

The ministry of Home Affairs issued the ruling on Wednesday morning. Like the national anthem, all the people must stand when ‘Vande Mataram’ is played.

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The government ordered that the national song must now also be played at civilian awards ceremonies, like the Padma awards, and all other events attended by the President, during their arrival and departure. It further said that the national song will also be played in public spaces like cinema halls, though standing up is not mandatory in this instance.

Notably, all the six stanzas, including the four removed by the Congress in 1937, will be played, the order said. The government has also reportedly planned to extend protocols covering the national anthem – under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act – to ‘Vande Mataram’.

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When applicable under the law, any person who disrupts, or prevents others from respecting, the national anthem and the national song if added to the category, can be sentenced to a maximum of three years in jail.

And, under the law, any person who disrupts, or prevents others from respecting, the national anthem (and now the national song) can be sentenced to a maximum of three years in jail.