India, Feb. 20 -- The Naga Students' Federation (NSF), an influential student body in the northeast, has expressed strong opposition to the recent directives from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) mandating that the Indian National Song, Vande Mataram, be sung or played before the National Anthem during official functions and extending the same requirement to educational institutions.

"The directive, which lays down a rigid sequence of precedence and, crucially, applies it to schools, represents an imposition that fails to account for the historical, political, and cultural realities of the Naga people. While NSF is aware of the constitutional framework of the Indian State, including Article 51A(a), we categorically assert that no...