3 months ago
2
Andhra Pradesh Christian Leaders Forum (APCLF), the apex assemblage of the Christian assemblage successful the State, demanded that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) retreat its notification issued connected January 28, 2026, which mandated that each six stanzas of the ‘Vande Mataram' beryllium sung oregon played during authoritative programmes.
In a property release, APCLF chairperson Oliver Rayi pointed retired that the archetypal 2 stanzas evoke the motherland’s earthy quality successful secular terms. However, from stanza 3, explicit spiritual imagery deifies the federation arsenic a Hindu goddess, which is incompatible with Christianity’s monotheism, helium added.
Pointing retired that writer and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore called the poem a hymn to Durga and unfit for a multi-faith nation, the forum noted that the notification was an battle connected spiritual sentiments and secular fabric. In the property release, the forum members wrote that they judge that the notification privileges Hindu devotion and violates Articles 14, 15, and 25 of the Constitution.
The APCLF demanded withdrawal of the notification, a multi-stakeholder dialog with minorities, limiting recital of the nationalist opus to 2 stanzas, arsenic was being done until now, and a prohibition connected its imposition connected schools.
Forum members, including APCLF caput Arul Arasu and State coordinator-NGOs Nellapati Samuel, said they would question the involution of the Supreme Court if the demands stay unmet.
