The petitioner filed a petition with the regional officer on respecting the national anthem
Madras high court
Chennai: The popular song ‘Vande Mataram’ sung by film music director A.R. Rahman came under the scanner in the Madras high court. A PIL has been filed in the court stating that a large number of school students had mistaken the song to be the national anthem as many schools neither taught nor facilitated their students to respect the national anthem on a daily basis.
According to the petitioner N. Selvathirumal of Ambattur, a large number of private schools including Velammal Vidyashram and Bhavan's Rajaji Vidyashram, Purasawalkam, were neither teaching nor facilitating their pupils to respect the national anthem.
The petitioner filed a petition with the regional officer, Central Board of Secondary Education in August 2014 on respecting the national anthem. Without initiating any action, the officer forwarded the representation to the assistant secretary, affiliation, CBSE, New Delhi. Replying to his RTI application, the secretary, CBSE stated that it was not mandatory to play the national anthem in schools.
Reacting to the RTI reply, the Union ministry of home affairs, December 17, 2014, advised schools to begin the day with a community singing of the national anthem and also directed the school authorities to popularise the singing of the national anthem and enable the students to respect the national flag. Due to the indifferent attitude of the school authorities, the anthem may fade away from the minds of students. Some even mistake the Vande Mataram song sung by music director A.R. Rahman to be the national anthem. He asked the court to direct all private schools to facilitate the playing and singing of the national anthem during morning assembly mandatorily. A division bench comprising Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and K. Ravichandra Baabu, before which the petition came up for hearing, directed the petitioner to implead the schools alleged by him and adjourned the hearing after two weeks.
( Source : dc )
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