Now Reading: Mukesh Khanna wants Vande Mataram as national anthem
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Mukesh Khanna wants Vande Mataram as national anthem
Actor Mukesh Khanna, best known for playing Shaktimaan, has reignited a controversy by demanding that Vande Mataram replace Jana Gana Mana as India's national anthem. He claimed that Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana…
Actor Mukesh Khanna, best known for playing Shaktimaan, has reignited a controversy by demanding that Vande Mataram replace Jana Gana Mana as India's national anthem. He claimed that Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana was originally written as a tribute to the British monarch.
In an interview with ANI, Khanna said his comments were misconstrued but he stands by his view that Jana Gana Mana cannot be the national anthem. He argued that the words 'Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak' refer to the British ruler who determined India's destiny during colonial rule, and that Vande Mataram, expressing devotion to the motherland, should have greater national significance.
Khanna told IANS he had earlier made the same demand three years ago. He claimed to have recorded a seven-minute version of Vande Mataram and expressed happiness that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made singing the song compulsory in schools and functions.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The debate over India's national symbols is not new. In 2018, a similar controversy arose when some claimed the national anthem was written for King George V, a claim historians have repeatedly debunked. Tagore's biographers note the song was composed in 1911 to welcome the king, but later repurposed by Tagore as a secular ode to the nation. The Constitution adopted Jana Gana Mana in 1950 after a Constituent Assembly vote. Any change would require a constitutional amendment with a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament, an unlikely prospect given the absence of any official proposal. The real impact is cultural: Khanna's remarks reflect a long-running sentimental push by some groups to elevate Vande Mataram, which is already the national song, to anthem status, a move that has found no legislative traction.
Source: timesnownews.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
