Can the state demand reverence from citizens? We ask, since the Department of Telecommunications has issued a warning to all telecom service providers on offering the national anthem as a ringback tone (the tone heard when a call goes through, before it is answered). Doing so, all telephone/mobile companies have been told, will be treated as a violation of the terms of licencing. The step has been taken due to the spread of such use; any mobile operator will tell you the anthem is a very popular ringback tune. In other words, people wished to take the anthem into their lives, in a manner that made sense to themselves. But, the state has decreed, this is intolerable; citizens cannot be allowed to take the anthem to heart in this way. Logically, by the same token, humming Jana Gana Mana while walking or shopping should be similarly banned, since the criterion is that any rendering of the tune has to be done with state-approved solemnity. It is the same mindset which insisted till very recently that citizens had no right to fly the tricolour atop their homes or in any other personal use. This is now allowed, subject to conditions, after a citizen appealed to the Supreme Court.
expressbuzz.com/-nation-and-the-citizen
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