Indian Express:Thusday,08 September, 2011.
Mumbai : Changing its 2005 stand before the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Home Affairs in a reply to an application under the Right to Information Act stated that the appropriate word in the National Anthem is ‘Sindhu’, not ‘Sindh.’
A PIL was filed by retired professor Shreekant Malushte who contended that the word ‘Sindh’ in the Anthem was replaced by ‘Sindhu’ by the government in January 1950. “However, the National Anthem continues to be sung and broadcast in a wrong manner by using incorrect words,” his petition stated.
On Wednesday, it was pointed out to the court that in submissions made before the apex court, the MHA had stated that the usage of ‘Sindh’ was correct, which was accepted by the court. However, in a reply on January 31 to the application filed by the petitioner under the RTI, the MHA stated that the usage of ‘Sindhu’ in the National Anthem is correct.
Although the court’s attention was drawn to the discrepancy in the MHA’s stand, its lawyers Rajinder Kumar and Dhirendra Singh told the court that the reply to the application under RTI is possibly a mistake.
However, they will have to seek instructions from the ministry regarding its stand. Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R G Ketkar granted four weeks to the MHA to clarify its stand.
The court was told that the Sindh province was a part of India prior to Partition in 1947 and now falls in Pakistan. The court, however, remarked that the Sindhu river also flows into Pakistan from India. The court had earlier said that the usage of ‘Sindh’ might be a simple mistake and not a deliberate act on the part of the government to insult the country or the Anthem.
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