The West Bengal government has directed all state-run and state-aided schools to make the singing of “Vande Mataram” mandatory during morning assemblies with immediate effect, according to an official communication issued by the School Education Department. The order states that all students must participate in singing the national song before classes begin each day. Heads of institutions across the state have been instructed to ensure strict implementation of the directive.
“The singing of Vande Mataram during morning assembly prayers before the start of classes should be made mandatory so that Vande Mataram should be sung by all students in all schools in the state with immediate effect,” the Director of Education said in a notice issued on May 13.
The move comes shortly after the Union government proposed amendments to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which seeks to make obstruction to the singing of “Vande Mataram” a punishable offence.
Until now, most schools in West Bengal traditionally sang only the national anthem “Jana Gana Mana” during assemblies. In recent years, the state had also promoted “Banglar Mati Banglar Jol”, written by Rabindranath Tagore during the anti-partition movement in Bengal in 1905, as the state song.
Sudhanshu Mishra is a Senior Copy Editor at Times Now. While his day-to-day work centres on news, his writing interests lie in the intersections of cu...View More
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