'Entertainment and Patriotism should not be mixed'

Indian shooter Heena Sidhu, who recently bagged a gold medal in women's 10m Air Pistol event here at Commonwealth Shooting Championships, on Saturday said that she does not understand as to why the Supreme Court made a law making it mandatory for the national anthem to be played in movie theaters.

"First of all, you mix entertainment and patriotism and you force people to stand up when they have come to actually get entertained from a movie and then you say, oh it is optional. So, either you don't bring up laws which you can't uphold or you stick with how the tradition and culture is," she said while talking exclusively to ANI.

Earlier in the morning, Sidhu took to Twitter to slam people who do not stand up for national anthem in the cinema halls.

Taking to her Twitter account, the 28-year-old insisted that she feels proud to be a sportsperson, adding that she could not even think of not standing and talking loudly over the phone while the national anthem is being played.

"No need to stand up for national anthem means you can carry on eating your pop-corns, chit-chatting, talking loudly on your phone while it's playing. Sometimes, I feel so blessed to be a sportsperson...We can't even imagine this! Getting a medal wouldn't be half as good without the Anthem," she wrote.

Recently, an FIR was lodged against two students from Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday after they allegedly did not stand up for the national anthem.

The two students of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University of Rajouri district, allegedly did not even stand up and were seen taking selfies when the national anthem was being played.

A fresh row on the singing of national anthem erupted after the Jaipur Mayor Ashok Lahoty made it compulsory for staffers to sing the national anthem every morning and the national song every evening. The bio-metric system of attendance will not accept any entries after the morning anthem.