It appears that the government is in a dilemma on whether Kuvempu’s JayaBharata Jananiya Tanujaate , which has been adopted as the Naada Geethe (State anthem) 12 years ago, should be shortened or sung in its original form.
Even after a year of an expert committee submitting its report on shortening the Naada Geethe, the government neither accepted nor rejected it, as according to sources it is caught between two powerful lobbies that are batting for and against the issue.
K.A. Dayanand, Director, Department of Kannada and Culture told The Hindu that the committee submitted its recommendations on May 15, 2014, and the same had been forwarded to the government, which was yet to take a decision.
Naada Geethe has been at the centre of controversy from the day it got the status of State anthem. An ode to Karnataka with reference to the State’s illustrious icons and rivers among other things, the length and tune of the anthem were two contentious issues from the beginning.
In the absence of standardisation, people are rendering the Naada Geethe in whatever tune they feel fit. The length of the anthem is running up to a minimum of four minutes.
As many as three expert committees were formed since 2004. Finally, a committee headed by Channaveera Kanavi trimmed the length of poem to 90 minutes and opted for one tune without aalaaps (short melodic elaborations in between).
Besides taking the opinion of experts, the government has fallen back on the social media to get feedback from people, after the issue divided academicians and writers. Though the videos of the edited and original versions were uploaded, the response was poor, according to sources. Expressing regret over the government’s silence on the recommendations, Doddarange Gowda, member of the committee, said “The government could have taken a firm decision on the report, instead of keeping it in cold storage.”
