Today, two judges of the Supreme Court showed the greatest disrespect ever for the Indian National Anthem. And displayed the utmost contempt for the Indian citizen. They imputed that only imprisoning people will make them listen to the anthem.
Brushing away individual rights, the bench imperiously stated that there was no space for individual rights here.
Seriously? I mean, without an individual how do you form a nation? And without an individual delegating a right to the government to appoint them, where do judges get their power from? This practice of forced imbibing of the national anthem will, according to them, instill a feeling of committed patriotism and nationalism! What, are we at war? Is this nation a giant hostel? Are various government servants and these learned men our wardens? In their expansive view, this mandatory music will give the forlorn public an opportunity to express our love for the motherland! Don’t say! Are we still under the foreign yoke and forbidden to listen to nationalist patriotic songs? A chance to listen to them should be welcomed as a god-sent gift?
A lot of questions; does the court have any answers? Or only judgements? The Supreme Court is the last resort when our rights are trampled by big government. What do we do when that court itself talks of shutting the doors of cinema halls while the citizens are forced to listen to the National Anthem? Force, dear sirs, just makes it a notional anthem. To jingoism masquerading as patriotism.
The judges have given the government 10 days to implement this patriotic mandate. Can a free citizen give these judges 9 days to prove that they are more patriotic than any randomly picked group of a 100 Indians? Many politicians too jumped on to the enforced flag-waving bandwagon. Extra power always gives them extra enthusiasm. Can they too be asked to take the common citizens’ patriotism challenge?
The ‘Viswa Kavi’ who sang of tearing down ’narrow domestic’ walls must be looking down in despair as self-appointed patriotism czars leave no spaces ‘where the mind is without fear’. Force depends on fear. And fear does not engender love; towards mother or motherland.
Gangaraju Gunnam 
I can understand the pain of movie theaters and their owners and those associated with the industry as a whole on how to absorb this extra effort. However, with aplomb they will play another commercial promoting an unhealthy drink or food item. It is sad to see those players who win medals at the games and hardly able to even lip-sync to the national anthem played, be it Asian games, Olympics, cricket tournaments or such. Why do you think they play the national anthem of the winner there? Do you think there is a war going on? Isn’t it important to know your national anthem’s lyrics if you want to at least claim you belong to that country. I think in general new generation Indians do not have patriotism, as they did not achieve it. It is like the brat son of a rich guy who inherited the property so to flaunt. When you do not have the patriotic fervor, you do not think of the consequence of your actions on the country or community, but only seek your selfish gain. We can see many leaders who demonstrate this with scorn. Increasing the patriotism in whatever ways will benefit the improvement of the overall country. This need not just be playing the national anthem, that may be one means to it. If you look at countries like Japan, Korea or even China(of course its success could also be attributed to its autocratic ways), their national pride is much higher with results that speak to it. Our national pride has much less to speak about itself in the current times. Leaders should encourage dialogue on how to increase the dignity of the country. True patriotism can reduce issues like bribery, sanitation, human values, unethical practices in education, value of life, quality of infrastructure. It can immensely help in improving GDP, Intellectual Property and overall prosperity of everyone. I would encourage you to think of ways in which we can promote patriotism which is the underlying goal for playing national anthem.