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Keywords: face the nation, Narayana Murthy

Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy is in the middle of a controversy following his comments on the National Anthem.

It all started with President APJ Abdul Kalam's visit to the Infosys campus in Mysore on Sunday. As per protocol, the National Anthem was played out but it was an instrumental version. Later Murthy explained that it was done to save his foreign guests from an “embarrassing” position of being silent and while their Indian counterparts were singing it.

Now Murthy is not the only one being taken to task for dishonouring the national sentiment. There is also a raging controversy against cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who was photographed cutting a cake made of the colours of the Indian flag.

While a considerable majority feels that the two public figures have insulted the sentiments of the people by their actions, there is also a segment that argues it’s too much fuss over nothing.

Are we oversensitive about the national anthem? On CNN-IBN show Face the Nation conducted by Sagarika Ghose, a panel comprising of eminent writer U R Ananthamurthy and columnist for The Pioneer Sandhya Jain discussed the issue.

A fall from grace?

Narayana Murthy has always been perceived as a capitalist with a difference, a homegrown international icon, a boy next door who made good but has his comment on the National Anthem disappointed India?

“I don’t think we should over do this. He chose a wrong word, he is such a votary of the English language and I am surprised that he used a word like embarrassment. He should have said that it is difficult for them to sing it, perhaps then there would have been no controversy,” Ananthamurthy said.

But then, can there be a greater patriot than Murthy and should he be judged on whether or not he sings the National Anthem?

While hinting that Murthy’s comment was rather uncalled for, Sandhya Jain said, “He knew that the President, as per protocol, has to be received with the National Anthem and it has to be played. Nobody was asking his foreign trainees or guests to sing the National Anthem as a compulsory activity on the campus.”

She went on to explain that if the National Anthem is sung anywhere in the world, one stands respectfully and visiting dignitaries are not expected to sing the anthem but they are only expected to pay their respects.

“All that the guests standing there had to do was to stand when the Anthem was being recited, which they do in their own country and we do when we go anywhere. So, there was no question of embarrassment or a compulsion to sing. I do not know why Narayana Murthy said that and he has given a very poor excuse for covering up his very major lapse,” Jain added.