GUWAHATI, May 20 � The prescription given by Asam Sahitya Sabha president Dr Dhrubajyoti Bora in respect of the way of singing Assam�s �Jatiya Sangeet� (State anthem) O mor aponar desh with the right hand on the chest will not be acceptable to the Assamese people with self-respect.
Observing this, senior journalist and president of Guwahati Senior Citizens� Association (GSCA), DN Chakravartty challenged the authority of Dr Bora, or for that matter the executive committee of the Asam Sahitya Sabha, in commanding the Assamese people to sing the anthem in the way not in tune with Indian culture and Assamese tradition.
Chakravartty said that while the sportspersons of western and American nations press their hands on their chests during the time of singing or playing the national anthem, it was not the Indian way of saluting the flag with the national anthem on.
�It will be uncalled-for for the Assamese people to copy the Christian way or the style of the Americans or the Europeans in singing the glory of the motherland. We have our own ways of singing the national anthem for the last several decades,� he said.
Chakravartty appealed to the general public not to heed what Dr Bora had without any authority dictated to the people a �strange and ridiculous procedure extremely foreign to the Indian temperament in respect of playing of the national anthem.�