A petition in the Supreme Court has termed the six-stanza Vande Mataram a “divisive religious war song”, and said government orders imposing a “sectarian prayer to particular goddesses of one particular religion as the National Song” violate fundamental rights of religion, attracts the criminal law and, basically, converts the Indian polity from a “secular republic” to a “theocracy”.
The court had referred to its 1986 judgment in Bijoe Emmanuel versus State of Kerala , which had upheld the right to religious freedom, constitutional tolerance and silent objection. Borkar argued that the six-stanza version introduced by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in his novel Anandamath would promote enmity and conflict between different communities by advancing the supremacy of a dominant community. The plea filed by B.D. Mr. The petition sought the court to intervene to quash the two orders, and stop any manner of compelling citizens, particularly school children, from singing or playing the six-stanza Vande Mataram .
Borkar, a Phule-Ambedkarite and a member of the Scheduled Caste Buddhist community of Maharashtra represented by jurist and advocate Mohan Gopal, said a State compulsion expressed through two successive government orders on January 28 and July 9 would lead to the “unstated but undeniable consequence of irreversibly deepening communal division and conflict in India by outraging the religious and spiritual feelings of minority religions”. The fabric of unity and harmony would be mutilated forever, he said. It said the court could direct that the two-stanza, standalone version of Vande Mataram alone be recognised, treated, performed and sung as the National Song.
