Bihar education minister who doesn’t know national anthem resigns

Bihar’s newly appointed Education Minister Mewalal Choudhary resigned from the post on Thursday just three days after taking oath over corruption charges and an hour after assuming office.

Choudhary has been in the eye of the storm ever since he was inducted into Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet for facing various corruption charges.

On November 18, Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) sharing an old video of Choudhary singing the national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ incorrectly, on the microblogging site Twitter and attacked the new government.

The undated video shared by the RJD shows Choudhary botching up the lines of the national anthem and singing incorrect lines at a flag-hoisting ceremony. He was surrounded by children and a few adults as he saluted the national flag.

Mewalal Choudhary not only mispronounces many words but is heard also adding random words before abruptly ending the national anthem in the 38-second clip.

Mewalal Choudhary, 67, was suspended from the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) in 2017 after a case was registered against him over alleged irregularities in appointments during his tenure as the Vice-Chancellor of the Bihar Agriculture University in Bhagalpur district. He was later re-inducted to the party.