A video of Kerala school students singing a song aboard the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express from Ernakulam to Bengaluru has sparked a political storm, with the Kerala government, opposition parties, and the school itself locked in a dispute over whether the song was a patriotic Malayalam composition or an “RSS song.” The controversy intensified after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly criticised the inclusion of the song during an official railway event, calling it a violation of constitutional principles and accusing the organisers of promoting the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) through a government platform.

The students involved in the incident belong to Saraswathi Vidyalaya, a private school in Thiruvananthapuram. The group had been invited to participate in the Vande Bharat Express launch ceremony on Saturday, where they performed multiple songs. The event initially appeared uncontroversial until Southern Railways shared a video on its official X account showing the students singing a devotional-style Malayalam song. Within hours, the clip came under scrutiny from political leaders and social media users who alleged that the song was associated with the RSS. In response to the mounting criticism, Southern Railways deleted the video.

Chief minister Vijayan condemned the incident in strong terms, asserting that the song performed by the students was not simply a patriotic composition but one used historically by the RSS. He stated that incorporating such a song into a government programme amounted to undermining constitutional values and the secular fabric of the country. According to him, allowing an RSS-associated song to be part of an official event organised by the nation’s largest public sector undertaking—the Indian Railways—was unacceptable. He argued that the act represented an attempt by the Sangh Parivar to use public institutions to disseminate political ideology, and he criticised the Southern Railway’s presentation of the song as a patriotic anthem, claiming that doing so trivialised both the institution and India’s national movement.

The controversy quickly drew reactions from opposition leaders. VD Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, called the episode “illegal and undemocratic.” He accused the BJP of attempting to implant divisive politics in Kerala by using children and government platforms for ideological messaging. According to Satheesan, the central government has increasingly relied on national institutions to advance partisan agendas, and the Railways, he said, was the latest example of this pattern. Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala echoed this view, calling the episode a “highly despicable political conspiracy” and characterising the act of making students sing an RSS song on an official train event as an affront to the nation. Chennithala urged all government and constitutional bodies to maintain dignity and neutrality, warning that such actions erode public trust.

Amid the escalating political backlash, Saraswathi Vidyalaya wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an effort to clarify the school’s position and defend the students. The school said the song the students rendered was titled “Paramapavitramathamie Mannil Bharathambaye Poojikkan,” a Malayalam composition that the school described as purely patriotic and respectful of the motherland. The letter expressed anguish over the outrage that followed the video’s removal from Southern Railways’ social media page, stating that the controversy had deeply saddened students, parents, and teachers. The school questioned the premise of the criticism, asking whether children could no longer sing a patriotic song without it being mischaracterised. They emphasised that the song contained no language that challenged secularism or national unity, and argued that it simply expressed reverence for Bharat Mata and pride in India. The letter suggested that the controversy had discouraged students and undermined their enthusiasm for national celebrations.

As the political dispute gained traction, Kerala’s General Education Minister V Sivankutty ordered a formal inquiry into the matter. He stated that using students to advance political or communal narratives at government-organised functions constituted a breach of constitutional norms. The investigation, he said, would examine whether the involvement of the students adhered to government regulations and whether the event organisers had misused the platform for ideological purposes. Sivankutty stressed that safeguarding secular national values was a core responsibility of the government and assured that any necessary action identified through the inquiry would be taken.

The broader debate surrounding the incident touches on issues of secularism, nationalism, political symbolism, and the boundaries of cultural expression in government settings. To supporters of the Kerala government’s stance, the inclusion of a song associated with the RSS in a public-sector event is an inappropriate infusion of rightwing ideology into a state function. To critics of the controversy, the backlash represents an overreaction that constrains patriotic expression and unfairly politicises the actions of schoolchildren. The school’s letter to the Prime Minister seeks to push back against the interpretation that the song carried ideological undertones, emphasising instead that it was chosen for its patriotic sentiment.

Southern Railways’ decision to delete the video added another layer to the dispute, raising questions about the screening of performances showcased on official government channels and the internal protocols governing cultural displays at public events. The deletion also became a focal point for the school’s grievances, as it interpreted the removal as a public repudiation of the children’s performance.

The controversy also highlights the heightened political sensitivities surrounding cultural symbols and expressions in Kerala, where disputes over national identity, secularism, and ideological influence frequently spark sharp reactions from political parties across the spectrum. Kerala’s political climate, dominated by the Left and Congress-led opposition to the BJP, often amplifies disputes that touch on the perceived expansion of Sangh Parivar ideology.

As inquiries proceed and political rhetoric continues, the incident underscores deeper tensions around the role of cultural content in state and central government events. Whether the song was an innocuous patriotic hymn or a symbol aligned with a particular ideology has become the central question, but the broader debate concerns the appropriate limits of political influence in educational and public-sector spaces. For now, the event has evolved into a symbolic battleground over competing interpretations of patriotism, constitutional values, and the relationship between government institutions and ideological movements.

The school maintains that the criticism has unjustly maligned its students and mischaracterised their performance, while the Kerala government insists that vigilance is necessary to prevent partisan messaging from entering official platforms. With the inquiry ordered and political parties entrenched in their positions, the episode is likely to continue reverberating in public discourse as authorities work to determine whether any procedural lapses or ideological overreach occurred.