Bengaluru: Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot wrote to chief minister DK Shivakumar, urging govt to reconsider its decision limiting Vande Mataram to two stanzas at official functions.Govt had ordered only the first two stanzas of the national song be sung at its programmes, except when President, vice-president, Prime Minister or Governor is present.In his letter Tuesday, Gehlot said govt’s Sept 8 order appeared to run counter to central govt guidelines and raised constitutional and statutory questions arising from Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, 2026.Citing the Union home ministry’s (MHA) order, he said Centre had prescribed an official version of Vande Mataram, and its instructions on mass singing leave no scope for a state to adopt a truncated rendition.Gehlot pointed to the 2026 amendment extending statutory protection under Section 3 of the Act to the national song, covering intentional prevention of its singing or disturbance of an assembly rendering it. Parliament, he wrote, had expressly brought the national song within the statutory framework of national honour, and state action should be harmonised with the central framework rather than prescribe a divergent version.Referring to Articles 162, 256 and 257(1), Gehlot said the distribution of executive powers between the Union and states needed consideration before adopting a protocol inconsistent with Centre’s. A state order prescribing a substantially different version, he warned, could raise an avoidable constitutional question over the respective spheres of authority.He asked govt to examine whether the two-stanza restriction could be sustained considering the amendment, MHA instructions, constitutional provisions, and need for uniformity in observing national protocols.“I advise the state govt to reconsider and follow the central govt’s prevailing instructions concerning the rendition of the national song,” Gehlot said, adding this would prevent litigation and avoid unnecessary conflict.He also hoped the issue would be resolved keeping in mind constitutional propriety, uniformity in national protocols and due respect to the National Song of India.
