Imposing national anthem diktat an insult: Salman Khurshid

Veteran Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday criticised the Jaipur Mayor and Bharatiya Janata Party for imposing the 'diktat' of singing National Anthem on the staff of Jaipur Municipal Corporation.

"The issue has never been, and I believe never should be about singing the National Anthem. Every citizen of this country respects it and the Jaipur Mayor or his political party(BJP) have no monopoly," Khurshid said.

The Jaipur Municipal Corporation in Rajasthan recently issued a directive to its staffers to sing the national anthem every morning and national song every evening. The biometric system of attendance will not accept any entries after the morning anthem.

Further, the Jaipur mayor said that those who don't want to sing the national anthem can go to Pakistan.

The former Union Minister said there may be many complaints about how BJP have dealt with issues of national importance in the past.

"What is happening with the national anthem is that there was an amusing decision about it taken where people were required by the Supreme Court to stand up for the national anthem in cinema theatres. Now SC itself revised its view and it feels that you don't need to show everywhere that you respect the anthem and therefore, they asked the government to consider it," he asserted.

Khurshid said that imposing such diktats is an insult to the National Anthem itself.

"Nobody ever said that there is an issue about singing the anthem and nobody asked others to stop singing it. I think for somebody to raise something of this nature, frankly, I believe is not only idiotic but also an insult to the National Anthem itself. They are speaking an untruth about the respect the people have for the national anthem of this country," Khurshid said.