Freedom should not be restricted, says Kalbe Jawad on Vande Mataram rule
Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad opposed the Centre’s new guidelines mandating the full rendition of Vande Mataram, saying it should not be forced on anyone. He stressed personal freedom while reacting to the Union Home Ministry’s directive
Lucknow: As the Union Home Ministry issued fresh guidelines mandating that all six stanzas of ‘Vande Mataram’ be sung or played at designated government functions and in schools across the country, Shia Muslim cleric Kalbe Jawad on Wednesday said there should be freedom and that it cannot be forced on anyone.
The new rules also state that when both the national song and the national anthem are performed at the same event, ‘Vande Mataram’ must precede ‘Jana Gana Mana’.
Reacting to the guidelines, the Lucknow-based cleric said that people should have the freedom to choose whether they want to recite the song or not. He also pointed out that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ during British rule and said it was originally meant as a message against colonial rulers.
Talking to IANS, Kalbe Jawad said: “There should be freedom, whether you read it or not. You cannot force anything on anyone. You cannot force religion on anyone. This is a religious slogan.”
“Chattopadhyay wrote this at a time when the British were ruling in the country. He wrote it in his book when we had not yet got freedom from the British. He wrote that book to advocate against the British. So, it was meant for the British, not for India or the countrymen.”
“But making it necessary for everyone is not good. There should be freedom in whether someone reads it or not,” he further said.
The Union Home Ministry said that those present are required to stand to attention during the rendition of the national song. However, it clarified that this requirement will not apply in cinema halls when the song is played as part of a film or documentary.
Until now, ‘Vande Mataram’ has not had a clearly defined national protocol, unlike the national anthem, which has long been governed by formal rules and guidelines.
According to the Centre, the move is aimed at standardising respect for the national song and removing what it described as an artificial distinction between ‘acceptable’ and ‘excluded’ verses. The government has argued that the song should be treated as a single, complete composition, as originally written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, rather than as a selectively edited text.
The guidelines have been issued amid the Narendra Modi government’s year-long programme marking 150 years of ‘Vande Mataram’. They also follow an extended parliamentary debate in which the ruling party questioned why a national symbol continued to be used in a truncated form decades after Independence.