New national anthem for Nepal

Kathmandu: As the Nepal Government and the Maoists are trying to work out a methodology which can sound both factions singing in tune, a new ‘National Anthem’ has been evolved which can inspire one and all in the country.

The national anthem selection task force has selected the song, which is composed of 50 words and divided into two stanzas.

It has been selected out of the 1,272 songs, received from across the country.

“The new national anthem incorporates national feeling, feeling of the people expressed in the recent people's movement, love of the land and speaks of the glory of the Nepali people,” Nepalnews quoted coordinator of the task force, Satya Mohan Joshi as saying.

Joshi, however, refused to reveal the name of the person whose song was selected.

“Code numbers were given to all the songs that were received and we proceeded to select one as per the guidelines we were given. We got to know the name of the composer only after the anthem was selected,” he said.

Joshi will submit the text of the national anthem to the Government for final nod later in the day. Once the government approves it, the process to compose music for the song will begin.

In the Himalayan Kingdom, the history of the national anthem goes back to 1895 during the reign of Prime Minister Bir Shumshere JB Rana.

Two separate tunes were composed to salute the king and the prime minister during their public appearances and the army band was asked to play the music for them.

Once the two tunes were composed, the rulers formed a committee to write the lyrics. The then Nepali Language Publications Committee asked popular poet Chakrapani Chalise to compose the songs.

After the establishment of democracy in 1951, which ended the Rana rule, the salutation song in honour of the Rana Prime Ministers was discarded while that of the king continued.

In 1962, three years after Chalise's death, a new constitution was written, making the royal salutation song as the national anthem.

The government and the Maoists are continuing their discussions to finalise the modalities of the interim constitution for the second consecutive day today.