- The Union Government has left no stone unturned in propagating, exhorting, disseminating, and urging the Indian citizens to unabashedly celebrate the 75th Indian Independence Day over the last couple of years. The tagline Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav has reverberated across the country on every available platform catching the imagination of the people like never before. The citizens from various walks of life to have responded equally positively joining hands with the governments in celebrating a momentous occasion. Several programs to commemorate the occasion are already underway and many more are lined up in the coming days as well. Overall, the patriotic flavor is visible all around even as the country awaits D-Day with bated breath.
PC: Himanshu Mishra
- The younger generation apparently is enthused by all the excitement surrounding the event and would wish to participate in equal measure. Irrespective of class considerations, even people from every stratum of society would want to soak in the festive atmosphere prevalent lending further color to the occasion. As is its wont, the political parties, led by the ruling dispensation of the center are at the forefront in their respective ways to celebrate the occasion. Now, whenever any emotive issues take a political color, rest assured, accompanying mudslinging and one-upmanship is not too far behind. In the best of times, opposing political parties are out with daggers and no-holds-barred narration targeting each other over any potentially emotive issue.
- The 75th Independence Day celebration is a very big occasion to not only score brownie points amongst the electorate by whipping up patriotism but also position as a party upholding nationalism as its core ideological front. The country is already witnessing such one-upmanship as Independence Day nears and the official Har Ghar Tirange campaign gets louder by the day. I love the national flag more than your variant of politics is also moving into a higher gear as a consequence. On top of this, Indians find themselves bombarded with a grim warning about the wrong ways of displaying the Tricolour, folding it, wearing it, lettering it, etc. These squabbles, prescriptions, and prohibitions just take the joy out of a citizen’s relationship with his/her nation’s flag.
PC: Admin
- Further, whether it is last year’s amendment to the Flag Code to allow flags made of materials other than khadi or the Apex Court upholding a plea to allow hoisting of the national flag by individuals, liberalizing our Tricolour rights is the only way forward. Mind you, negative models of nationalism are too caught up in their own defensiveness to value spontaneity, creativity, and individuality, but these are much truer building blocks of love of the nation or its flag than the deadweight of overregulation. Remember, the Indians have faced legal action for cutting a cake with the Tricolour on it or for wearing a sari with the same. Needless to mention, such memories are a real I-Day dampener. Let’s make this wonderful occasion better and free-flying one.
