With a day to go for the release of Bihar Prarthana Geet, a political worker filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in Patna High Court on Tuesday seeking cancellation of the prayer.

The petitioner has stated that there are many mistakes like film-based music, use of Urdu and Arabic words besides grammatical errors in the song.

The PIL also states that the song does not reflect the pride, speciality and historical importance of the state.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar is supposed to release a CD of both the state anthem and the prayer song at 5pm at the CM secretariat, Samwad, on Wednesday.

The state government claims it is taking the step with a view to strengthen the unity among the people of Bihar living across the world. Several months ago, the state government had invited entries for selection of the state anthem and the prayers song.

Of about 1,500 entries received, around 96 (46 for the state anthem and 50 for state prayer) were shortlisted by a team of experts. Initially, one lakh CDs have been made and would be distributed among 76,000 government schools in the state free of cost. It would be mandatory for every government school in the state to play the state anthem and prayer daily along with other prayers and National Anthem during the assembly. Every college and government institution would also be directed to perform the song at every special function, just like the National Anthem.

Chandra Kishore Parasar, the petitioner who is the general secretary of art and culture cell wing of the BJP, told The Telegraph: “I have filed a PIL in the high court in my individual capacity. I have raised objections as the said literary work (prayer song) is not an original. It does not fulfil the criteria according to which the entry should have been accepted.”

Seeking a stay on the distribution and release of the CD, Parasar submitted in his petition that the court should cancel the entry and invite fresh ideas. “The fresh entries should be selected by a committee of litterateurs appointed under judicial scrutiny,” he said.

The petitioner submitted that the prayer song — Meri raftaar pe suraj ki kiran naaz kare — sung by Udit Narayan and written by M.R. Chishti, a teacher at Urdu Middle School, Marwan block in Muzaffarpur, is a mixture of two famous Hindi films Do Ankhein, Barah Haath and Paap Aur Punya. He also added that the writer has used Urdu and Arabic words in his song which are difficult for Hindi readers to comprehend.

He said 99 per cent people of the state speak Hindi and subjects are taught in the same language. “The common people will have difficulty in understanding Arabic words like parwaz, naaz, amno-aman, ilm, gango-jaman,” he added.