IIT Madras likely to play Tamil invocation song with National Anthem in its events

The song, written by scholar Manonmaniam Pillai and set to tune by musician MS Viswanathan, is played at the beginning of all government functions in the state and the national anthem is played at the end of the function.

Indian Institute of Technology-Madras may play Tamil invocation song, in addition to Vande Mataram and National Anthem, in its official programmes and functions, sources in the Ministry of Education informed PTI. Last year, IIT Madras was caught in a controversy when the Tamil Nadu government took an exception to the state invocation song not being played as per protocol during the convocation of the centrally-run institution.

A letter was also sent to the IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi by Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi. Stating the issue, the minister said that not playing the song was an obvious deviation from the protocol.

"IIT-Madras may play the song 'Tamil Thai Vazhuthu' in addition to Vande Mataram' and 'National Anthem' in its official programmes and functions. Tamil is equally an important language for the country and there is no issue in playing the state song at official events," a source said.

Thamizhachi Thangapandian also raised the issue in the Parliament. The act of not playing the song was also called as “disappointing” by noted Tamil poet and Lok Sabha MP.

The song, written by scholar Manonmaniam Pillai and set to tune by musician MS Viswanathan, is played at the beginning of all government functions in the state and the national anthem is played at the end of the function.

58^th convocation at IIT-M was virtually held on November 20 in which Olympic badminton medallist PV Sindhu was the chief guest. As many as 1,962 students graduated and 2,425 degrees, including joint and dual degrees, were awarded to students on the occasion.

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