New Delhi
Congress MP from Assam Ripun Bora on Friday moved a private member resolution in Rajya Sabha seeking amendments to the national anthem for replacing the word ‘Sindh’ with ‘Northeast India’.
“Northeast is important part of India, it is unfortunate that it is not part of national anthem on other hand Sindh is mentioned, which is no longer part of India but part of Pakistan, which is a hostile country,” Bora was quoted as saying by Media.
This is not the first time the issue of ‘Sindh’ in the national anthem has been raised. Sindh is the name of a province in Pakistan and so the mention of it in the Indian national anthem has always been questioned.
Earlier in 2016, Shiv Sena member Arvind Sawant made a similar demand to remove the word ‘Sindh’ from the national anthem as there existed no state in the country by that name and replace it with an appropriate word.
The Shiv Sena member raised the issue during the Zero Hour in Lok Sabha and said that as the national anthem was adopted by the Parliament, it should initiate action to remove the word.
Also, in 2005, a petition was filed by a national skating champion, Sanjeev Bhatnagar, in Supreme Court to remove the word ‘Sindh’ from the national anthem as it is no longer a part of India but Pakistan. However, the centre challenged the petition and said that Sindh does not represents a province but culture. Hence, the centre challenged on the grounds that removing it will hurt the sentiments of Sindhis living in India and the court then declined to entertain the petition or make any amendments to the national anthem.
The national anthem was composed by Novel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore in 1911 and was later adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1950.
