Several political leaders in Tamil Nadu on Monday found fault with IIT-Madras for not having played the Tamil Thai Vaazthu (Tamil invocation song) at a function attended by Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Pon Radhakrishnan. A Sanskrit song ‘ Maha Ganapathim ’ composed by Muthuswami Dikshitar was sung by the students as an invocation song.
However, the IIT-Madras does not have the tradition of singing the Tamil invocation song. “We don’t train students for the invocation. All the students who volunteer to sing cannot sing [in Tamil]. They sing what they know – sometimes, it is a Marathi song; sometimes it is Bengali, sometimes Hindi,” IIT-M Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said.
DMK working president M.K. Stalin demanded apology from the Centre.
PMK founder S. Ramadoss said it was wrong to pin blame the students.
