AUDIO: Tamil National Anthem should be allowed in North and East - Shivajilingam

The people of the North and East should be allowed to sing the National Anthem in Tamil as it is the administrative language in these Provinces, Tamil National Freedom Alliance (TNFA) Secretary M.K. Sivajilingam told Ada Derana.

“Even if the President or the Prime Minister go for a function is it beneath them to sing the National Anthem in Tamil?” he asked.

Following the National Safety Day event which was held in Jaffna yesterday where the Anthem was only sung in Sinhala, Sivajilingam stated that government should take appropriate action on this problem as it is a concerning issue amongst the Tamil people.

“Why can’t the Tamil people sing it in their own language? If the administrative language is recognized as being Tamil in the North why can’t its people sing the Anthem in Tamil?” he asked.

Indian news website, Express News Service reported that authorities and army personnel together insisted that the choir from the Tamil-medium Hindu Ladies College sing the National Anthem only in Sinhalese to which the girls and their parents had objected because they could not pronounce the words of the Anthem as they did not know the language.

The website stated that though the cabinet refrained from taking a decision on the matter, reports from Kilinochchi and Jaffna suggested that the army had been successfully enforcing the diktat that the anthem is sung only in Sinhalese.