KUMAR CHELLAPPAN
International cultural events hosted by countries in the world are platforms for the host nations to showcase their rich heritage and traditions. The guests are treated with respect and love. India, in spite of many shortcomings as a developing economy, treats the guests with respect and affection in synchronisation with its age old cardinal rule of Atithi devo bhava, Sanskrit for “Guest is equivalent to God”.
The global rule is that when a person from one country visits another country, he/she has to respect the rules and laws of the host nation. When heads of States come calling to this country, a warm reception is accorded to them either at the international airport or at the forecourt of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan where the national anthems of both the countries are played and the entire area is decorated with the national flags of both the countries are flown.
Whether it be the FIFA world cup football matches or the European or African or Latin American Cups football championships, all matches start only after the national anthems of the rival teams are played. While the national anthems are played, players, officials and spectators stand up in attention as a mark of respect. This is civilisation.
India has a beautiful national anthem written by poet Rabindranath Tagore. It is a song in celebration of the rich heritage of the country and the unique oneness of the distinctly myriad geographic entity that’s is Bharat Mata. Similarly, all countries have their national anthems in praise of the motherland. Yes, national anthems of all countries, whether they be the communist nations, capitalist countries or Islamic republics, the national anthems are in praise of their motherland.. the only motherland.. That is the spirit of nationalism..
Why this description about national anthem at this juncture may surprise the readers. This is the ideal time to share with the esteemed readers about the attitude of a section of people in Kerala, who describe themselves as intellectuals and internationalists, towards India’s national anthem. The Supreme Court in a recent judgement made it compulsory for all cinema exhibitors in the country to play the national anthem before and after the screening of the shows. There is nothing surprising and unusual in the verdict because it is a universal practice. The citizens of each country consider it a privilege and responsibility to stand in attention mode when the national anthem is sung or played. But not in Kerala.
A group of people describing themselves as Kodungalloor Film Society approached the apex court with a plea to give exemption to the organisers of the International Film Festival of Kerala scheduled to be held at Thiruvananthapuram in the second week of December from playing the national anthem. Their arguments: the foreign delegates may find it irritant to stand up when a song which is alien to them is played and the physically challenged persons may find it painful to stand up when the national anthem is played!
As expected, the learned justices threw the petition to the dustbin and gave the applicants a piece of their mind.. Only persons who are willing to get up and stamd in attention when the national anthem is played need to attend the film festival. And for the physically challenged persons, the court gave complete exemption from standing up. Sensible people welcomed the verdict as an apt and reasonable judgment . But the matter did not end there. During the festival, a group of self styled intellectuals, a permanent feature in all the desi film festivals, refused to stand up while the national anthem was played. The CPI(M)-led Kerala Government did not see anything unusual in the behaviour of the delegates who opted to sit much to the dismay of even delegates from abroad when the national anthem was played.
Janam TV, a popular TV channel took the shots of the defiant intellectuals and beamed the visuals in their news bulletins. This made the police take into custody the rebels, filed cases against them under harmless sections and let them off . But the “secular and liberal media” in the literate Kerala singed out Janam TV for airing the visuals of the secular brigade who refused to stand up during the national anthem.
What is more shocking is that Kamaluddeen, director of the International Film Festival of Kerala, came out in support of those who defied the court order to respect the national anthem. Kamaluddeen, a hard-core Islamic fundamentalist who is known by his screen name Kamal, said there is no need to stand up during the singing of national anthem. The Islamic fundamentalists in Kerala, consider national anthem and the national song as un-Islamic and against the tenets of Islam! A former minister belonging to the Muslim League refused to light up the traditional lamp for the inauguration of a government function organised by the then government with the argument that it amounts to anti-Islamic act! This is the kind of secularism and nationalism practiced by the Communists and the Communalists.
Let me put is some words about Kamaluddeen also known as Kamal. He is the maker of potboiler movies in which he portrays Hindus poorly.. Kamaluddeen selectively casts Hindu characters either as idiots or villains and the Muslims as the embodiment of all that is good.. For him, Indian nationalism is something against Islam. He does not mind to be a servile while in Saudi Arabia or for that matter in any other West Asian countries.. A phenomenon which we describe as “more loyal than the King”!… He is the director/chairman of Kerala Film Academy only because he happens to be a Muslim and a part of the CPI(M) Government’s package to appease the 28 per cent Muslim community in Kerala.
For the Marxists and Islamic fanatics like Kamaluddeen, Qaumi Taranah (national anthem of Pakistan) and Hasten to Glory and Supremacy (Saudi Arabian national anthem) are music to their ears while a song in praise of the cultural and geographical pluralism of Bharat is haram.. Secularism at its zenith!!
(The writer is a Chennai-based senior journalist)