The Advocate General of Tamil Nadu has been directed by the Madras High Court to find out in which language ‘Vande Mataram’ – an ode to goddess Durga - was originally written.
Justice M.V. Muralidharan sought the clarification from the Advocate General R. Muthukumaraswamy while hearing a plea moved by K. Veeramani, who failed to clear the written test for the post of BT Assistant as he answered that the song was written in Bengali.
According to the petitioner, he was awarded 89 marks in the test, whereas the Teachers Recruitment Board fixed the minimum eligibility as 90 marks.
On enquiry he was informed that his answer to the question on the song ‘Vande Mataram’ was wrong and that the right answer was Sanskrit.
But claiming that he had read in many books where it was categorically given that the song was originally written in Bengali, he alleged that TRB had made a mistake in the answer key. He further claimed that for the mistake made by the board, he lost his opportunity of being appointed as a BT Assistant.
When the plea came up for hearing, the Government pleader submitted that the song was originally written in Sanskrit and later translated into Bengali.
Hence, to clear the ambiguity, the judge directed the Advocate General to clarify the fact and posted the plea to July 11 for further hearing.
