A new political row has erupted in West Bengal over the Centre’s directive on the protocols for singing or playing the national song Vande Mataram, penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Several political parties in Bengal, including the ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), have slammed the BJP-led Central government’s move, alleging that it was an insult to Rabindranath Tagore, the author of the national anthem Jana Gana Mana, which is now to be played after Vande Mataram if they are played together. In a directive dated January 28, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notified the first set of protocols for singing Vande Mataram, directing that all six stanzas of it should be sung at official functions – a departure from the two-stanza convention set by the Congress leadership in 1937 that was later adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1950. But in Bengal, the directive that Vande Mataram should precede Jana Gana Mana has sparked furore. TMC leader and state education minister Bratya Basu, addressing a press conference Thursday, claimed that Hindutva outfits …