Independence Day 2022: Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, hoisted the national flag 'Tricolour' of the Independent India from British raj but it wasn’t the Red Fort where the ceremony took place.
So what happened, why Tricolour was not hoisted at Red Fort on August 15, 1947
On the eve of independence, or let’s say August 14 midnight, the constituent assembly appointed Lord Mountbatten the first governor-general of India, when on the same day, Pt Nehru delivered the speech ‘The Tryst with Destiny’, to the constituent assembly defining the freedom movement of the India.
On August 15, 1947, Lord Mountbatten took the oath of the Governor General following which both Nehru and Mountbatten where to head to the Princess Park near India Gate. Nehru was supposed to lower down the Union Jack in a ceremonious way and unfurl the national flag but it didn’t go that way.
When Pt Nehru and Mountbatten were exiting the constituent assembly, there was a sea of crowd out there and it became quite a challenge for both of them to exit the building and reach Princess Park where the ceremony was to be held.
According to Lord Mountbatten, Pt Nehru wanted August 15 as a happy day for everyone and felt that if lowering of the Union Jack would have offended British susceptibility then he would made sure it didn’t happen.
At last, Pt Nehru and Mountbatten reached the Princess Park where India’s first Prime Minister unfurled the national flag Tricolour, marking the beginning of the independent India.
After proudly honouring the Tricolour, Pt Nehru the next day on August 16, 1947, unfurled the national flag at the Red Fort and gave the historic speech front the ramparts of the iconic structure.
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