Vande Mataram: Health Minister, collector sit after first two stanzas; Kasaragod BJP files police complaint

Kasaragod: The BJP in Kasaragod has filed a police complaint against Kerala Health Minister K Muraleedharan, Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan, MLA Kallatra Mahin and District Collector Sreedhanya Suresh after they sat down while the remaining stanzas of Vande Mataram were being sung at a government function in Kasaragod.

Gopalakrishna M, BJP's Badiadka mandalam president, submitted the complaint to the Adhur police station, seeking action against the four for allegedly showing disrespect to the national song during the function in BJP-run Karadka grama panchayat.

Two BJP panchayat members sang the full six stanzas of Vande Mataram at the inauguration of a laboratory building at the Family Health Centre at Mulleria in Karadka panchayat.

The building under the state government's Department of Health Service was constructed using funds from the Kasaragod Development Package. But the inaugural event was organised by the BJP-run Karadka panchayat.

In the 16-member governing body, the BJP has eight members, the Congress-led UDF has five, and the CPM-led LDF has three members.

Two panchayat members, Savitha Kumari P, chairperson of the standing committee for development, and Vasanthi A, chairperson of the standing committee for health and education, rendered all six stanzas of Vande Mataram at the function.

However, Minister Muraleedharan, Unnithan, Mahin and Collector Sreedhanya Suresh sat down after the first two stanzas. Udma MLA K Neelakandan, who was alone on the left side of Vasanthi and Savitha, remained standing until the song was completed.

Gopalakrishna said the BJP was particularly aggrieved by the Collector's conduct, as she was a government official and not an elected representative. "We do not agree with what the minister and the people's representatives did. But they are politicians and have their constituencies to cater to. The Collector, however, is an official. She was the first to sit down after the two stanzas were sung," he said.

BJP Kannur zone president K Shreekanth said the three elected representatives should apologise to the nation for disrespecting Vande Mataram. He said the Collector's conduct was particularly serious as she was an officer entrusted with protecting the Constitution and the legal system, and not a political leader. He also congratulated Neelakandan for remaining standing and listening to the song until the end, even as the others sat down.

'BJP agenda will not be allowed in govt events'
Muraleedharan, however, maintained that the state government would not allow the BJP to implement its agenda at programmes organised by the state government.

The minister said the official agenda for the inauguration included an invocation of a lord's prayer, and not the rendition of the full version of Vande Mataram. "The two panchayat members had been assigned to sing the prayer, but they went ahead with Vande Mataram," he said.

The minister said the function was a state government programme as the health centre was fully owned by the health department. "So the state government's protocol should prevail," he said.

"If it was a programme organised by the panchayat, they could follow their own policy. We would have cooperated. If it were a Thiruvananthapuram Corporation programme, we would have to follow the corporation's position. I am also an MLA representing a constituency within the corporation and am bound by its protocol," he said. Thiruvananthapuram Corporation is run by the BJP. "But if there is an attempt to hijack a state government programme, it will not be accepted. That was the message we conveyed at yesterday's function."

The minister said the state government would follow the practice of singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at its functions.

Asked whether he would apologise for remaining seated, Muraleedharan said: "Nobody needs to teach me patriotism. I am the son of a freedom fighter. If they initiate any legal action, I will face it," he said.

The Collector, meanwhile, had said the two panchayat members were assigned to sing prayers at the function. The state government had registered its protest over the deviation from the programme's agenda.

Karadka panchayat member Janani M took refuge in semantics. "The minister said the invitation had mentioned 'ishwara parthana' but only parthana was written. And we consider Vande Mataram as a prayer. We sing the full version of Vande Mataram at all our functions," she said.

Vande Mataram, composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, originally consists of six stanzas. The Indian National Congress, in October 1937, decided that only the first two stanzas would be sung at national gatherings. The decision was intended to retain the portions that praised the motherland while avoiding later verses that invoked Hindu religious imagery.

Earlier this year, the Union government updated the official protocol to mandate that all six stanzas be sung at government functions and schools.

Parliament also passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which gives all six stanzas of Vande Mataram statutory protection and places it on par with the national anthem.