Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan strongly condemned Southern Railway after students sang an RSS song during the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express inauguration, calling it a breach of constitutional secularism.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s Sharp Critique of Railway’s Communal Tactics
The highly anticipated launch of the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, a major infrastructure achievement for the region, was abruptly consumed by a fierce political firestorm following a deeply controversial incident. Reports and viral video footage confirmed that school students on board the new train service were compelled to sing a song associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This highly visible event, meant to symbolise national progress and connectivity, instead became a flashpoint concerning the secular neutrality of government institutions.
The controversy drew immediate and explosive condemnation from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. In a powerful official statement, Vijayan declared the action by the Southern Railway administration a “blatant violation of constitutional principles.” He emphasized that featuring a song linked to the RSS, an organization he characterized as promoting communal and divisive politics, in an official government function was completely unacceptable. The Chief Minister’s strong stance instantly escalated the incident, turning a logistics blunder into a national debate on the appropriate separation of religion and state in public life. The search term “Pinarayi Vijayan Slams RSS Song” saw a massive spike in online activity.
