India, Aug. 8 -- Vande Mataram will echo at the Red Fort ramparts for the first time on the 80th Independence Day, and all six stanzas of the national song will be played before the National Anthem at the conclusion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address.

The invitation cards issued by the Defence Ministry for the upcoming ceremony include all the stanzas of Vande Mataram. It will enable the invitees to sing along with the national song when it is played, it was learnt. They will also have to stand in attention. Top ministers, military officers, bureaucrats, diplomats, students, and special guests, who have excelled across fields, attend the ceremony and receive the invitation cards.

It comes just days after Parliament passed the Pre...