Vande Matram cannot be treated on par with national anthem: Owaisi

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has strongly objected to the Union Cabinet’s decision to grant ‘Vande Mataram’ the same statutory protection as the national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’, arguing that the song cannot be placed on par with the anthem because it is “an ode to a goddess”.

The Centre recently approved amendments to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, making obstruction to the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ a punishable offence — effectively extending it the same legal protection as the national anthem.

In a post on X, Owaisi said “Jana Gana Mana celebrates India and its people, not a particular religion”, adding that “religion is not equal to nation.”

“The nation is not a goddess; it does not run in the name of a god or goddess, and it does not belong to one god or goddess,” he wrote.

Referring to the Constitution, Owaisi said the Preamble begins with “We, the People” and not “Bharat Maa”, while Article 1 describes “India, that is Bharat” as a Union of States.

He also argued that attempts in the Constituent Assembly to invoke a goddess or God in the Constitution’s opening text were rejected.

Owaisi further claimed that several prominent leaders of the freedom movement had reservations about ‘Vande Mataram’.

“The man who wrote Vande Mataram was sympathetic to the British Raj and despised Muslims. Netaji Bose, Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore all rejected it,” he said.

The remarks triggered a sharp response from Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao, who accused the AIMIM leadership of viewing “cultural integration” as a threat to “religious exclusivism”.

“What does this tell us? Once politics becomes dependent on religious exclusivism, every civilisational symbol is portrayed as a threat,” Rao said in a post on X.

Drawing parallels with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Rao claimed opposition to ‘Vande Mataram’ emerged only after politics became rooted in religious identity.

He also accused the AIMIM of opposing measures such as the Uniform Civil Code and the abolition of Triple Talaq, alleging that the party sees “national cohesion” as a threat to its political relevance.

With PTI inputs