Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly condemned the Southern Railway for making school students sing an RSS song onboard the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express from Ernakulam to Bengaluru on Saturday.
“The Southern Railway making students sing the RSS anthem at the flag-off of the Ernakulam–Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express is highly condemnable. Including the anthem of an organisation known for its communal ideology and hate mongering in an official event is a blatant violation of constitutional principles,” said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The flag-off ceremony of the Ernakulam–Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express has sparked a political controversy after the Southern Railway posted a video of a group of schoolchildren singing a song associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) onboard the train during its maiden journey.
The video was later deleted after it drew sharp criticism from various quarters.
“By sharing the video on its social media handles, the railway authorities have exposed how eminent national institutions are being subverted by Sangh Parivar politics. Once a proud symbol of India’s secular nationalism, the Railways is now being used to sneak communal ideology into official functions. All secular and democratic forces must unite to resist this dangerous move,” added Pinarayi Vijayan.
VD Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition, also voiced strong concerns: “Just as the ruling dispensation has been using constitutional institutions like the Election Commission for political purposes, the Indian Railways too is being turned into a tool for communal propaganda by the Union government. The inauguration of the Vande Bharat service reflected the Sangh Parivar’s narrow politics—injecting communal poison into every sphere of society and seeking to divide people along religious and caste lines for political gain.”
He went on to say: “The Sangh Parivar, which historically opposed the freedom struggle and national movements, continues its legacy by rewriting the nation’s true history and saffronising the curriculum to spread venom in society. Like in North India, the BJP is now attempting to implement its politics of division in Kerala as well. But the people of Kerala will stand united and firmly resist the BJP–Sangh Parivar’s communal agenda.”
CPM Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas also condemned the move, saying in a post on X, “The RSS Ganageetham formed an integral part of the highly politicised inauguration of the new Vande Bharat service between Ernakulam and Bangalore. Indian Railways has stooped to new depths, as even the announcement of new services is now marked by political fanfare while sidelining people’s representatives.”
The video of a group of students singing a Malayalam song usually sung at the meetings of the RSS was posted by the Southern Railway on its official social media accounts, terming it a ‘patriotic song’. The video was captioned, “A melody of joy onboard the inaugural special Ernakulam–KSR Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express! School students filled the coaches with patriotic songs, celebrating the spirit of the moment.”
All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, MP, demanded an investigation into the incident, calling it a ‘politicisation’ of the event and a ‘misuse of schoolchildren’.
In a letter written to Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Congress leader said that the inclusion of a song associated with the RSS had reduced an official government function to an RSS-sponsored spectacle. “This shameful attempt to inject sectarian symbolism into a national event is part of a larger, systematic effort to rewrite India’s public institutions in the image of one organisation. This is not an isolated lapse but a continuation of the recent, deliberate attempts to demean our national symbols, including the national anthem itself,” he said.
The Southern Railway has not yet responded to the controversy.
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