Guwahati: Students and people staged a rally on Monday opposing the Centre’s directive to the state government mandating the singing of Vande Mataram during official functions and in educational institutions.
The protest was organised under the banner of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF). People with placards “MHA’s January 28 directive is an assault on secularism”, “Naga rights are non-negotiable”, “Stop forced policies”, and “The directive is a direct attack on our faith”.
The protestors marched from Kohima Town to Lok Bhavan. NSF president Mteisuding Heraang said the rally is a collective assertion that the identity and beliefs of the Naga people cannot be dictated by administrative directives.
The demonstrators also submitted a memorandum addressed to President Droupadi Murmu through the Governor of Nagaland. In the memorandum, the NSF urged the President to withdraw the directive mandating the singing or playing of Vande Mataram during official functions and within educational institutions in the Naga homeland.
It also called for dialogue with representatives of the Naga people before implementing policies that could affect the cultural and social fabric of the region.
The memorandum further noted that the revised version of Vande Mataram contains devotional imagery associated with the worship of a particular deity, which the federation said conflicts with the religious and cultural sensitivities of the Naga people.
The NSF also maintained that educational institutions should remain spaces for intellectual freedom and democratic values rather than platforms for “enforcing symbolic compliance or ideological uniformity”.
