Tagore experts, politicians hit out at Kalyan Singh for national anthem remarks

Kolkata Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh on Wednesday drew flak from Tagore experts constitutional figures academicians and politicians for seeking an amendment in the national anthem Jana Gana ManaWhile Singhs Tripura counterpart Tathagata Roy chose microblogging site Twitter to assert that there was no such need two former vicechancellors of Rabindra Bharati University named after the bard lashed out against the Rajasthan governor calling him ignorant about both the anthem and TagoreAddressing the convocation ceremony of Rajasthan University Kalyan Singh on Tuesday said he respected Tagore but called for dropping the word aadhinayak as it signified the British empire Roy a BJP leader from West Bengal asserted It has been 67 years since independence Why should our adhinayak be the British I dont think it is right to make any change in the national anthemRajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh with Minister of Higher Education Kali Charan Saraf and Minister Education Vasudev Devnani during the 26th Convocation at Rajasthan University in Jaipur on Tuesday PicPTI Former RBU VC Subhankar Chakraborty said I am shocked and ashamed at Kalyan Singhs comments If he had the minimum knowledge about Tagore or the song he would not have uttered what he said In the song the people are the adhinayaka the king of kings Such was Tagores faith in the people that once when he was asked who he considered the best king of Europe he replied the people Chakrabort who has authored a book on Tagore told IANSAcademician and Tagore expert Pabitra Sarkar also assailed Singh His comments smack of ignorance lack of education He does not know when and in what context the song was written Leave aside Bengali writers even Irish literary figure WB Yeats and American poetcritic Ezra Pound have clearly stated that the song is not an eulogy to British rulers Sarkar also an former vice chancellor of RBU told IANSSarkar said Tagore in the poem spoke about the eternal Indian spirit the mono adhinayaka the supreme inner spirit Had Kalyan Singh read the remaining verses of the poem he would have desisted from making his laughable and deplorable observationsBoth the Communist Party of IndiaMarxist and the Communist Party of India also assailed Kalyan Singh While CPIM leader Brinda Karat accused him of speaking like an RSS pracharak D Raja of the CPI accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting to destroy the countrys secular democratic fabricFirst sung by a choir in 1911 in the 26th session of the Indian National Congress at the citys Greer Park Jana Gana Mana was composed and set to tune by Tagore the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 days after the British government annulled the partition of BengalIndependent Indias constituent assembly adopted the first stanza of Brahmo hymn as the national anthem on Jan 24 1950 after an intense debate that saw Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyays Vande Mataram lose out narrowly following objections particularly from MuslimsHowever Singh is not the first person to express misgivings about the song Critics had opposed making it Indias national anthem claiming it was written as an eulogy to King George V as its composition coincided with the Coronation durbar of the British emperor in New DelhiIn 1937 Tagore in a letter admitted that one of his proestablishment friends had requested him to write a paean for the emperor I was stunned at that and also angered As a result of this catastrophic reaction I have declared the victory of the dispenser of Indias destiny in the Jana Gana Mana songThat great charioteer of human destiny cannot by any means be fifth or sixth or any George said Tagore who holds the unique distinction of having composed the national anthems of two countries India and Bangladesh