Kohima: An influential students’ organisation of Nagaland on Wednesday said schools should not send pupils to Independence Day programmes where the full version of Vande Mataram has to be sung.
According to the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), the complete version of the National Song was not in keeping with the country’s secular principles.
The NSF has directed its federating units and subordinate bodies to prevent educational institutions from sending students to Independence Day programmes until the order mandating the singing of the revised National Song is revoked.
In a statement, the group said it has no objection to the celebration of Independence Day or to showing due respect to the National Flag, National Anthem and other national symbols.
However, the Federation said its concern was with the compulsory participation of students in Vande Mataram, particularly where its devotional and religious imagery conflicts with the conscience of students belonging to non-Hindu communities.
The organisation of Nagaland, a Christian-majority state, maintained that as a secular democratic republic, India’s Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and religion, and therefore no student should be compelled to participate in any religiously sensitive expression contrary to his or her belief.
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 shall be sung at official functions such as the arrival of the president, unfurling of the national flag, and speeches of governors.
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.
