Schoolchildren sang the RSS anthem inside a Vande Bharat train as part of its flag-off programme from Ernakulam in Kerala, creating a storm with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan terming Southern Railway’s act as “highly deplorable” and “unacceptable”.
The Ernakulam-Bengaluru train was one of four new Vande Bharats that Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off via videoconferencing on Saturday.
Soon after, Southern Railway uploaded on its X account a video clip of the children singing the RSS anthem inside the moving train (just after it had left the Ernakulam South station), and captioned it a “patriotic song”.
The video was removed after a controversy broke out, with many non-BJP politicians and netizens accusing Southern Railway of “saffronising” the government event.
Southern Railway, however, reposted the 1.04-minute clip and captioned it: “The students of Saraswathi Vidyalaya beautifully performed their school song during the inaugural run of the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express.”
The children who sang the RSS anthem were from the Saraswathi Vidyanikethan Public School at Elamakkara in Kochi, run by the Sangh-affiliated charitable trust, the Rashtra Dharma Parishad.
Students from many other schools were on the train, too. All the children got off at the next station.
Suresh Gopi, Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, was on the train and distributed chocolates among the children.
“The Southern Railway’s act which made students sing the RSS Gana Geet during the inauguration of the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat service is highly deplorable, unacceptable and should be protested,” Vijayan tweeted.
“The inclusion of the RSS song, which constantly spreads hatred against other religions and communal divisive politics, in the official government programme is a violation of constitutional principles.”
Vijayan said that Southern Railway had “not only made a mockery of itself but also mocked the Indian national movement” by sharing the video and calling the RSS anthem a “patriotic song”.
The controversy comes amid Congress allegations about the BJP promoting the RSS ideology at official events.
Recently, the state’s Left government got into a spat with Kerala governor Rajendra Arlekar after he got his staff to display a picture of “Bharat Mata” at all official programmes at the Raj Bhavan.
Several cabinet ministers walked out of the programmes in protest and Vijayan stayed away until the picture was removed.
Flagged off at 8.45am, the third Vande Bharat train from Kerala reached Bengaluru at 5.50pm.
Apart from the governor, Union minister of state for minority affairs George Kurian, Kerala ministers P. Rajeeve and V. Abdurahiman, Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, Rajya Saba member V.K. Haris Beeran, state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar and legislator T.J. Vinod attended the flagging-off at Ernakulam South railway station.
The new train stops at 11 stations — Thrissur, Shoranur, Palakkad, Podanur, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Jolarpettai, Krishnarajapuram and KSR Bengaluru. It covers the 608km distance in nine hours.
BJP leaders boycotted a programme held at Palakkad, when the train stopped there, because of the presence of the controversial local Congress legislator, Rahul
Mamkoottathil.
The young MLA has been accused of sexual misconduct against several women, including journalists and doctors. The BJP has been boycotting any official programme attended by Mamkoottathil.