New Delhi: Following a walkout by opposition MPs and after an hour of discussion, the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday (July 29) passed the Modi government’s Bill prescribing punishment for those who ‘prevent’ or ‘disturb’ the singing of the national song, Vande Mataram.Opposition MPs sloganeered against home minister Amit Shah – who was absent from the Rajya Sabha – for the Delhi police’s use of force against protesters marching to parliament last week, before walking out around half an hour after the House began discussing the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill.The Bill seeks to amend the 1971 Prevention of Insults Act to allow for the punishment of those who ‘prevent’ or ‘disturb’ the singing of not only the national anthem but also of Vande Mataram with up to three years’ jail and/or a fine.Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha said of the Bill that “reverence cannot be legislated”.“During my student life we used to sloganeer saying, ‘Vande Mataram, kar le thodi sharam [have some shame]’. Will that become an insult? I am also asking this on behalf of the youth. Vande Mataram, kar le thodi sharam,” Jha said before deputy chairman Harivansh moved on to the next MP.Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party, who remained in the House after other opposition MPs walked out, also brought up the police action in his remarks. “Vande Mataram means worship of the motherland … As we stand amid the world, we call for glory to Bharat Mata, but you break the heads of the daughters of that Bharat Mata in Delhi,” the MP for Delhi said.Later, minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai responded to the discussion, defending the amendment Bill as “our commitment to India’s soul, national consciousness, cultural heritage and the ideals of the freedom struggle”.He criticised the Congress multiple times in his ten-minute address and accused it of ‘always insulting the pride of the country by implementing the politics of appeasement’ and of “opposing Vande Mataram”.“But the sons and daughters of this country are seeing the opposition to Vande Mataram. The opposition to Vande Mataram means heightening the morale of the ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ [India you will be reduced to pieces] gang,” Rai said.Following his remarks the Bill was put to voice vote and passed, just over an hour after the House began considering it. Prior to this, the Rajya Sabha had briefly discussed the legislation when Rai introduced it on Friday. Both houses of parliament have been logjammed as the opposition has demanded that the government apologise for the police action of July 20.What is the Vande Mataram issue?Although only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram are ordinarily recited – in part because of the Hindu undertones of some of the later verses – the home ministry earlier this year issued orders requiring the recitation of all six of its stanzas at certain official functions. The national song, it added, must be sung before the national anthem when both are played at an event.When these orders were challenged before the Supreme Court a month later, the bench had dismissed them saying they are merely part of an advisory and no penalty is associated with failure to follow its instructions. The amendment Bill however provides for criminal penalties for disrupting Vande Mataram’s recitation.As in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Modi government had previously criticised the Congress amid its own push for Vande Mataram, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the opposition party of ‘bowing to the Muslim League’ and ‘pursuing its politics of appeasement’ by agreeing to recite the song’s first two stanzas during the freedom struggle in the 1930s.“Unfortunately, the Congress’s policies remain the same. And not only this, the INC [Congress] has gradually turned into an MMC [Maoist-Muslim League Congress],” the prime minister declared in the Lok Sabha in December.However, the pre-independence Congress had resolved to sing the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram because the Hindu undertones in the later lines could offend Muslims among other minorities.Speaking to The Wire last year, historian Mridula Mukherjee recalled that the Congress had tried to address minority concerns while also not caving in to communalist forces like the League.Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the League, she noted, had opposed the singing even of Vande Mataram’s first two stanzas after the Congress’s decision to recite just that. “So the Congress actually did not concede to the Muslim League’s demand, which was to have the whole song removed as the national song,” she told Karan Thapar.