Prasar Bharati apologises over leaving out ‘Dravida’, other words in Tamil Thai Vaazhthu

Prasar Bharati statement sought to put to rest what could have renewed tensions between the Governor and the Tamil Nadu government.

Prasar Bharati, the Union government-owned public broadcaster, apologised for an incident in its event when certain stanza with ‘Dravida’ was left out by singers, while rendering the State song Tamil Thai Vaazhthu with Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi present on the stage. Its statement sought to put to rest what could have renewed tensions between the Governor and the Tamil Nadu government.

Prasar Bharati issued the statement within a few hours after Chief Minister M.K. Stalin took to the social media to strongly react to the incident held within the Doordarshan Kendra campus on Friday (October 18, 2024) evening, reiterating his demand to recall the Governor over the “deliberate disrespect” to Tamil Nadu and its people.

During the rendering of the Tamil Thai Vaazhthu, “inadvertently a line was missed, which happened due to a distraction”, Prasar Bharati sought to explain. “We apologise for the inadvertent mistake. There was no intention from the singers to disrespect Tamizh or Tamil Thai Vaazhtu. In this regard, we apologise for the inconvenience caused to the Governor of Tamil Nadu.”

Mr. Ravi was the chief guest for the Hindi month valedictory function and commemoration of Doordarshan, Chennai’s Golden Jubilee celebrations held in Doordarshan Kendra on Friday (October 18, 2024) evening. Meanwhile, an advisor to the Governor maintained that the Governor or his office has no role in this except that he participated in the programme. He further said: “Governor has high respect towards Tamil and sentiments of the State and will continue to hold them at the highest level.”

Soon after the incident, Mr. Stalin said leaving out certain parts while signing the Tamil Thai Vaazhthu was against the law of the State and further charged: “Someone who does not follow the law but his own whims is not fit to hold the post [Governor].” He went on to question whether the Governor, who was “allergic to Dravida” would instruct for leaving out the word while singing the national anthem.

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami too strongly condemned the incident. He further contended the word ‘Dravida’ was the “shining light to the lives of the downtrodden, a rebellion against oppression and a symbol of the ancient civilisation.” He further said: “Whoever it may be, should drop such acts attempting to hurt the sentiments of Tamil people and belittle the Dravidian culture.”

Earlier in the day, while political parties in Tamil Nadu objecting to combining the Hindi month valedictory function and commemoration of Doordarshan, Chennai’s Golden Jubilee celebrations into one, Mr. Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi contending: “In a multilingual country like India, according special place to Hindi and celebrating Hindi month in non-Hindi speaking States is seen as an attempt to belittle other languages.”

The Constitution “did not accord national language status to any language”, Mr. Stalin pointed out and further underlined Hindi and English were being used only for official purposes such as legislation, judiciary and communication between the Union and the State governments, he said.

“I suggest that holding such Hindi language oriented events in non-Hindi speaking States could be avoided or if the Union Government still desires to hold such events, I suggest that celebration of the local language month in respective States must also be done with equal warmth,” Mr. Stalin said.

Following an announcement by Mr. Stalin, the Tamil Nadu government in December 2021, declared Tamil Thai Vaazhthu as the ‘State song’ and issued guidelines for singing the song in public functions. It further specified that the song should have been sung within 55 seconds and should be sung by “trained” singers vocally. Except for differently-abled and pregnant women, others were to remain standing while singing the ‘State song’, the G.O. had specified.

Published - October 18, 2024 08:10 pm IST