Sat Nov 08 10:45:41 UTC 2025: News Article:

Kerala CM Condemns Railways for RSS Anthem at Vande Bharat Launch

Thiruvananthapuram, India – November 8, 2025 – A controversy has erupted in Kerala after the Southern Railway administration allowed students to sing a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) anthem during the flagging off ceremony of the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express on Saturday. The incident has drawn sharp criticism from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who accused the railways of violating the Constitution by promoting an organization that allegedly fosters communal hatred and division.

The inauguration of the new Vande Bharat Express, Kerala’s third, was conducted virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Tourism, Suresh Gopi, and other BJP leaders attended the event.

Following the event, Southern Railway posted a reel of the anthem recital on its Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Chief Minister Vijayan stated that the railways were undermining the Constitution’s fundamental principles of secularism, peaceful coexistence, and social harmony. He asserted that civil society would resist the RSS’s alleged attempt to exploit the railways to promote divisive communal politics and a Hindu majoritarian worldview.

The Chief Minister further accused the railways of shielding the RSS, which he claimed had betrayed the Independence Movement and aided colonial authorities. He described the inauguration as a manifestation of an insidious agenda to inject Hindu majoritarian politics into State functions.

This incident follows previous objections from State government Ministers who boycotted Raj Bhavan events in protest against the Kerala Governor’s public displays of reverence to an RSS image featuring a woman bearing a saffron flag and sitting atop a lion against a disputed map of the country.

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