I flipped back a page and glanced through it. It wasn’t there. I flipped another page and then another. I had ‘read’ three pages since the thought provoking sentence but, involved in the process of skimming through the pages to find it again, I realized that I have merely read ahead and haven’t understood a word.
My absent mindedness while cramming the Indian Politics was about to scandalize me when I hit the target. I spotted the sentence I was looking for.
Yes, I had read it correctly. Yet I read it thrice again.
‘The Supreme Court slapped a fine of Rs. 10,000 on a petitioner for filling a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) who wanted Sindh to be replaced by Kashmir in the Indian national anthem.’
Sindh, Karachi’s capital…Sindh is in Pakistan not India.
“Dad, isn’t Sindh in Pakistan?” I questioned although assured of an affirmative answer to that.
“Since India’s independence in 1947”, he snapped back!
Neither understanding my emotions nor knowing how to react to it, I immediately Googled and studied the details.
The Union Home Ministry had to say that ‘tampering with the lyrics could destroy the National anthem and is not desirable’.
To quote Indian Express’ e-paper, The Centre’s affidavit averred: “The National Anthem is a highly emotive issue; any alteration/substitution in the Anthem will not only distort but also almost destroy the Anthem...Any tampering with a finely constructed poem or song, particularly of one of our greatest poets Gurudev Rabindranath, is not desirable.” The Sindhi Council of India also filed an affidavit supporting the Centre’s stand.
The fire that erupted half an hour ago, subdued. Not completely so. Discouraged and half convinced, I threw myself back into the book and continued what I am worst at, studying Indian politics!
But the focus had shifted.
“Was the partition of our nation desired? No! It happened because the existing circumstances in the country at that time made it inevitable. Isn’t it politically incorrect to include Sindh, or for that matter any part of the ancient India, when it is no more a part of the nation? Or is it because the national anthem is a composition of the legendary Rabindranath Tagore? But then again, why is the remixed version of a popular Bollywood number encouraged when these remixes by DJs are again a tampering of the lyrics and music of great composers?”
The questions continue to haunt…
