National Anthem needs to be played only at appropriate gatherings and not at movie halls, unless it goes with scree… https://t.co/4sDwQTMRyF — Captain Manivannan (@mani1972ias) 1572323661000

BENGALURU: A video of a group of Bengalureans being chided for not standing up during the national anthem in a city theatre last week went viral on social media on Monday.The hashtag #NationalAnthem was trending on Twitter on Tuesday, with over 58k tweets showing that people were divided on the issue. It also set off a debate of whether the national anthem should be played in theatres ahead of the film screening.The incident occurred at PVR theatre in Orion Mall during a night show of Tamil movie ‘ Asuran ’ on October 23.In the video, a group of people are seen calling moviegoers who didn’t stand up ‘Pakistani terrorists’. They were repeatedly questioned. Those who didn’t stand up were made to leave. It’s not clear if this was mob action or security theatre staff did it.Kannada reality TV show actors BV Aishwarya and Arun Gowda were among those who repeatedly questioned the moviegoers. Chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Are you a Pakistani?’ can be heard repeatedly during the two-minute video. A few fellow movie-goers who tried to stand up for the group were also silenced with the question ‘Why are you supporting them?’.Several questions were hurled at the group throughout the video, both in Kannada and English with many saying, “If you cannot stand up, then get out of here.” One person also tells the seated women ‘Go eat Pakistani s*%t’.Social media was divided on the issue. Labour department secretary Manivannan tweeted: “National Anthem needs to be played only at appropriate gatherings and not at movie halls, unless it goes with screening of certain movies. However, if played, I would rise for the National Anthem everytime.”Read this story in Bengali