A goof-up by the Government of Tamil Nadu made the Madras High Court order on Tuesday that the national song Vande Mataram should be compulsorily sung and played in all schools and educational establishments across the State at least once a week.
Justice MV Muralidharan also ordered that Vande Mataram should be played in all Government offices and institutions, private companies, factories and industries at least once a month.
He also made it clear that nobody should be forced to sing the national song provided there were valid reasons. He also ordered the Director of Public Information to upload and circulate the transliterated version of Vande Mataram in Tamil and English, thereby making it available on Government websites and also on the social media.
Justice MV Muralidharan’s order came on a petition moved by K Veeramani, who had failed to clear the written test mandatory for teaching job.
Veeramani, who took the Teacher Eligibility Test held by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2013, petitioned to the court that he could not clear the test as while replying to a question on the language Vande Mataram was originally written in, he had answered, Bengali.
As the key to the answer was given as Sanskrit to the examiner, the answer was declared wrong and he was awarded 89 marks against the minimum 90 to be eligible for teaching job.
Claiming that he had failed to get a teaching job by just one mark due to ‘wrong’ evaluation, the petitioner had sought award of the extra mark, treating his answer as correct.
When the matter first came up on July 7, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee had written the National Song in both Bengali and Sanskrit.
The Government’s counsel, on the other hand, argued that it was penned only in Sanskrit and was later translated into Bengali.
The petitioner contended that in all the books he had read, Bengali was mentioned as the language in which Vande Mataram was originally written.
Following this, the judge had directed the Advocate General to apprise the court of the correct answer in order to settle the dispute over the linguistic origin of the song.
When the case came up on July 13, Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy informed the court that Vande Mataram was of Sanskrit origin, but had originally been penned in Bengali by Chatterjee.
The judge directed the Teachers Recruitment Board to award the mark to the petitioner.
“Patriotism is an essential requirement for every citizen of this country. The fact that this country is our Motherland should always be remembered by every citizen. Several people have sacrificed their lives and families during the Independence struggle that prolonged for several decades. In those tough times, it was songs like Vande Mataram which created a sense of belief and confidence in the people,” said the Judge in his order.
“let a copy of this order be marked to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Tamil Nadu who shall issue appropriate instructions to the authorities concerned,” said the judge.