West Bengal's government has ordered madrasas under its Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department to include Vande Mataram in assembly prayers before classes. The May 19 directive took immediate effect, according to the order reproduced in The Indian Express. It followed a similar requirement introduced for schools under the education department.
The listed institutions include government model madrasas, recognised government-aided and unaided madrasas, and approved Shishu Shiksha Kendras and Madhyamik Shiksha Kendras. These are respectively primary and secondary education centres. The direction supersedes previous orders and practices for the institutions it names.
The Times of India reported on May 22 that madrasas were closed for summer vacation and would incorporate the instruction when classes resumed. Citing sources in the West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education, it said many institutions already opened the day with the national anthem followed by a short address about the nation.
The new song would therefore be added to existing assembly arrangements at those institutions. The newspaper reported that the director of madrasa education had signed the instruction. Its account placed the change within the daily prayer routine, before teaching began, rather than describing a separate commemorative event.
Opposition politicians challenged compulsory participation. Former minority commission chair Ahmed Hassan Imran told The Indian Express that Muslim students should be allowed to stand during prayers without singing. CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim argued that patriotism could not be imposed through a circular. BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya rejected treating the issue as a Hindu-Muslim dispute.
TV9 Kannada's May 22 report traced the extension to a May 13 school-education notification that Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had shared. It reported that detailed implementation guidelines had yet to be issued. The immediate change was an assembly requirement; the competing responses centred on compulsory singing and the accommodation requested by its critics.
