Maha erupts into joyous, patriotic fervour for 75th I-Day commemoration

Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Aug 15 (IANS) Maharashtra on Monday erupted into joyous, colourful and patriotic celebrations of the nation's 75th Independence Day at official, political and public levels, with masses participating enthusiastically.

The state's official function was held at the Council Hall in Pune where Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari hoisted the National Tricolour in the presence of top dignitaries, police and civil officials.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde hoisted the national flag at his official residence 'Varsha' and later at Mantralaya in the presence of a large number of dignitaries, and addressed the gathering briefly.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis hoisted the flag at Nagpur, other Bharatiya Janata Party cabinet ministers Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Vijaykumar Gavit, Girish Mahajan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Ravindra Chavan, Atul Save and Suresh Khade in their respective districts.

From the Shinde Group of Shiv Sena, ministers Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar and Shambhuraj Desai, hoisted the flag in their allocated districts.

Nationalist Congress Party's Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, Congress state President Nana Patole did the honours at their respective party headquarters with large number of workers joining them to sing the National Anthem and chanted 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'.

The General Managers of Central Railway Anil Kumar Lahoti hoisted the Tricolour at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Konkan Railway Chairman Sanjay Gupta hoisted the national flag at the Konkan Rail Vihar in Navi Mumbai and Western Railway General Manager Prakash Butani hoisted it at the Churchgate headquarters.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority Chairman Sanjay Sethi hoisted the national flag and paid tributes to the freedom fighters.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat hoisted the tricolour at the organisation's headquarters in Nagpur, while other MPs, MLAs and elected representatives also did the honours in their constituencies.

Similar functions were held at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, the Indian Army, Indian Navy and India Air Force stations in Mumbai and other parts of the state, district collectorates, at prominent Central and state government institutions, private companies, malls, multiplexes, villages, social and cultural organisations.

Thousands of housing societies, residential complexes and slums in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik, Nagpur held their own I-Day flag hoisting events with a huge number of locals joining, braving the sudden showers in some areas which failed to dampen the festive spirits.

The Maharashtra Congress had last week taken out a 'Tiranga Rally' in all districts which culminated, other social organisations also took our Tricolour processions, exhorted people to hoist the national flag at their homes and celebrate.

For the first time after the two years of pandemic, the 75th I-Day heralded good business for thousands of small street-vendors selling mini Tricolours made of paper or cloth, India map cut-outs, badges, tie-pins, balloons, stickers, mementos, tiny statuettes and other popular nationalistic paraphernalia.

Prominent public buildings like the Mantralaya, CSMT, Churchgate Station, BMC Headquarters, the Siddhivinayak Ganpati Temple and other temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras, local government offices, et al, all over the city and other parts of Maharashtra were lit up in the national flag colours since the past couple of days with lakhs of people thronging to view and click selfies.

The social media also burst into patriotism with greetings, photos of the Tricolour, innovative messages or memes, pictures of India's freedom struggle heroes or heroines, little-known titbits of the crusade for Independence and other interesting stuff to enlighten the Gen-Next.

Several Bollywood celebs like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, Anoushka Kohli, Priyanka Chopra, and more, plus, leading industrialists, cricket stars and prominent personalities flooded the social media with pictures and messages of I-Day festivities, adding to the patriotic mood of the nation.

The Maharashtra Police deployed stringent security measures across the state to ensure an incident-free Independence Day especially in the Maoist-infested districts of eastern Maharashtra like Gadchiroli and surroundings.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: [email protected])