Vande Mataram is the national song and we stand up in respect when it is sung. The first verse, or the first couple of verses, is something most people know by heart. Now they want all five verses to be sung at the beginning of every event and again at the end. I think that is an unnecessary imposition – Shashi Tharoor, Senior Congress Leader

Picture : ANI/x

Senior Congress leader and  MP Shashi Tharoor  has questioned the need to play all five verses of Vande Mataram at the beginning and end of official events, saying the practice was “unnecessary and burdensome” for audiences.

As reported by PTI, Speaking to reporters amid the controversy over the singing of the national song in Kerala, Tharoor said everyone respects Vande Mataram, but making the full version mandatory at every function was difficult to justify.

“Vande Mataram is the national song and we stand up in respect when it is sung. The first verse, or the first couple of verses, is something most people know by heart,” he said.

Tharoor noted that traditionally the song was sung once at the start of an event, while the national anthem was played separately, often at the end.

“Now they want all five verses to be sung at the beginning of every event and again at the end. I think that is an unnecessary imposition,” the Congress Working Committee member told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.

The MP said the Kerala government had maintained that singing the full version was optional, while Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar appeared to hold a different view.

“It may ultimately have to be adjudicated because there is no law passed by Parliament requiring this. It is more a matter of convention,” he said.