A video shared by Southern Railway showing school students singing a song linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) during the inaugural run of the Ernakulam–Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express has triggered a political storm in Kerala.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused the Railways of trying to “sneak communal ideology into official functions,” calling it a violation of constitutional values. Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan also criticised the move, saying that “even a national event was not spared from saffronisation.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, defended the act, accusing the chief minister of disrespecting “children’s right to free speech.”
The controversy began after the Southern Railway posted a video of students from Saraswathi Vidyanikethan Public School in Kochi singing Paramapavitramathamie Mannil Bharathambaye Poojikkan, a song associated with the RSS and its affiliated organisations, during the train’s launch, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off virtually.
The school, affiliated with the CBSE and run by Bharatheeya Vidyanikethan, the Kerala unit of Vidya Bharathi, is part of the RSS’s educational network.
Amid the backlash, school principal KP Dinto clarified that the Railways had no part in choosing the song. “A TV channel crew asked the students to sing. They first sang Vande Mataram, but the crew wanted a Malayalam song. So they sang this one,” he said, adding that the song was meant to “celebrate unity in diversity.”
“The controversy is unnecessary and only meant to insult the students,” Dinto said. “The song is not against nationalism, and the Railways never instructed them to sing it.”
In a strong response, Vijayan wrote on social media: “The Southern Railway making students sing the RSS anthem at the Vande Bharat flag-off is highly condemnable. Including an anthem of an organisation known for communal ideology in an official event is a blatant violation of constitutional principles.”
Congress leader KC Venugopal said he had written to the railway minister, calling it “a blatant misuse of Indian Railways, a national institution that belongs to every citizen, not any divisive ideology.”
Reacting to the criticism, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “What exactly are you condemning…that some children sang songs they love? They sang patriotic songs about their motherland. How can a chief minister who took an oath on the Constitution be so disrespectful of children’s right to free speech?”
