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The Indian government has proposed making any act that disrespects the country’s national song, Vande Mataram, a criminal offence punishable by up to three years in prison.

India has both a national anthem and a national song. While Jana Gana Mana, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted as the national anthem in 1950, Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, was recognised as the “national song”, granting it some formal recognition but without the same legal status.

Vande Mataram, which means “I bow to thee, mother”, is a patriotic composition with deep cultural and historical significance.

The bill, which seeks to amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act 1971, would put Vande Mataram on a par with the national anthem.

The bill was scheduled to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, on Monday by home minister Amit Shah. However, it could not be tabled after the House witnessed repeated disruptions and adjournments.

FIle: Indian home minister Amit Shah during a parliament session (AFP/Getty)

If passed by parliament and enacted into law, the bill would criminalise preventing the singing of Vande Mataram, disrupting an assembly engaged in singing the national song, or otherwise insulting or showing disrespect towards it.

In the statement accompanying the bill, the government cited a declaration made by Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, on 24 January 1950. The declaration said that Vande Mataram, credited with playing a historic role in India's freedom struggle, "shall be honoured equally with 'Jana-Gana-Mana' and shall have equal status with it".

The lyrics of Vande Mataram have been a point of contention in India for decades and only the first two stanzas from the five-paragraph song are officially recognised.

Written in the late 19th century, the song became a powerful rallying cry during the independence movement against British rule.

However, some Muslims objected to verses that associate the motherland with Hindu goddesses such as Durga and Kali, arguing that the imagery conflicted with Islamic beliefs against the worship of deities.

At the time it was adopted as the country’s national song, leaders from both the Muslim League and the then-ruling Indian National Congress argued that the song in its entirety was not sufficiently inclusive for India's religiously diverse population and as a result only two stanzas were recognised.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is now keen on recognising all five verses as the country’s national song.

Mr Shah has blamed the Congress party for dropping stanzas from the song, while prime minister Narendra Modi has said it was “broken and cut into pieces”. He has claimed that “its division sowed the seeds of the division of the nation and divisive politics, which remains a challenge”.

The Modi government has said it wants to host year-long celebrations to commemorate 150 years since Vande Mataram was composed.

Critics have raised concerns over the bill's broad definitions of offences against the song, arguing that it could infringe on freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

They also argue that it would upset the constitutional balance established in 1950, which gave the national anthem and the national song different legal status.

Opposing the bill, John Brittas of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said he wrote to Mr Shah urging the government to withdraw it.

Mr Brittas argued that the move sought to criminalise acts relating to Vande Mataram despite the Supreme Court recently observing that no law mandated its singing or prescribed punishment.

He said the Constituent Assembly – which governed India for three years between its independence from Britain and the founding of its own constitution in 1950 – had deliberately not accorded the national song the same constitutional or statutory status as the national anthem, noting that the Constitution's Fundamental Duties mention respect for the national anthem but not the national song.