The News Minute | March 18, 2015 | 04.20 pm IST
Right uptil now, Sri Lankans have been following an unofficial ban that prevents its citizens from singing their national anthem in Tamil.
An unofficial ban existing ever since 2010 under President Mahinda Raajapaksa when he made it clear that the government would not be pleased with those singing the anthem in Tamil, many schools and other institutions singing the Tamil version of the anthem, stopped, reported The New Indian Express.
However, new President Mathripala Sirisena will soon be sending a circular to all institutions saying that there would no ban on singing the anthem in Tamil, said the report.
In 1951, the Tamil version “Sri Lanka Thaaye Nam Sri Lanka”, was adopted along the same time that the Sinhalese-language anthem “Sri Lanka Matha, Apa Sri Lanka” was taken up as the national anthem.
In 2010, then Home Minister W.D.John Senewiratnehad introduced a cabinet paper that prevented the singing of the anthem in Tamil. However, the order was never really made official as Rajapaksa did not commit himself to the proposal, said the report.
However, it became known that singing in Tamil was not favourable with the ruling government. In Tamil regions, it was insisted that only the Sinhalese version of the national anthem be used.