The Centre plans to table a Bill in the Lok Sabha during the upcoming Parliament session beginning July 20, proposing penalties for any insult or obstruction to the singing of Vande Mataram.
The Union Cabinet's recent clearance of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill follows directive guidelines from the Home Ministry, which mandated that the national song be played or sung at all official events where the national anthem is performed.
Once the Bill is cleared by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the law will make insulting the national song a punishable offence. It would fall among the other high symbols of the republic, like the national anthem, the national flag and the Constitution.
The Union Cabinet has approved a Bill to amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which proposes up to 3 years in prison, a fine, or both for anyone who deliberately insults or intentionally disrupts the singing of India's national song, Vande Mataram.
The BJP has maintained that past 'secular' governments failed to accord Vande Mataram—a song deeply interwoven with the freedom movement—its due place, alleging that they yielded to objections from a section of Muslims over the song's Hindu imagery.
According to reports, the government is planning to bring back the Bill of delimitation and implement women's reservation in the LS and assemblies from 2029.
The Bill can be introduced only after the Cabinet's clearance, with government sources saying its timing will be firmed up once the session begins.
The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday, proposes that births and deaths reported after two years can be registered only on the order of a first-class judicial magistrate. This replaces the existing provision under which approval from a DM, SDM, or executive magistrate sufficed.
