Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh on Tuesday said that the term adhinayak in the national anthem should be replaced with mangal as it praises “ Angreji Shashak ” of pre-Independence period.
“Jan-Gan-Man adhinayak jai ho... ‘adhinayak’ for whom. It praises ‘angreji shashak’. British time. It should be amended and replaced by word ‘jan-gan-man mangal gaye’,” he said at the 26th convocation ceremony of the University of Rajasthan.
“I have got full faith and respect for Rabindranath Tagore, but national anthem’s ‘adhinayak’ word should be replaced by ‘mangal’,” he said. In a similar vein, he said that the term ‘Mahamahim’, or his or her excellency, should be dropped as a prefix for the Governor and the word ‘mananiye’ be used in its place since a Governor is never “mahan” as used since the British period.
The comments by Mr. Singh, a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, come days after he compared Maharana Pratap with Mughal Emperor Akbar, saying that the Rajput ruler was “inspirational” to the nation with the suffix “great.”
Reiterating those views, the Governor said that the education department should run courses in which Maharana Pratap’s life and his struggle are specifically highlighted. “Victoria was not great, it was Jhansi ki Rani who had fought wars. Aurangzeb was not great, it should be Shivaji,” he further remarked.
