As the central government plans to celebrate in a big way the 'Festival of Independence', Union ministers will visit birthplaces of freedom fighters and border outposts across the country.
"The aim is to bring back to public consciousness the forgotten or unknown heroes. Let the contribution of people from one region be known in others," Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said today, giving details of the plans.
Women ministers, including Uma Bharati, Harsimrat Kaur and Smriti Irani, will visit border outposts and tie rakhis on the jawans, while leading singers Asha Bhonsle, Kumar Sanu, Manoj Tewari will take part in events organised by paramilitary forces.
Naidu said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last week visited Bhabhra in Madhya Pradesh where Chandrashekhar Azad was born while he had also visited August Kranti maidan in Mumbai.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh which is associated with Ashfaque Ali and Ram Prasad Bismil. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will visit Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab and Hiranagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu will visit Dandi in Gujarat, while Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan will visit Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace in Porbandar.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will visit the historic Cellular Jail in Port Blair. Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore will visit Meerut.
Naidu asked how many people, for instance, know about Rani Gaidinliu and stressed the need for creating awareness about these heroic figures who had participated in the freedom struggle.
The idea of India is being reinforced through this festival, he said.
As per the plan, patriotic songs will be played on AIR, DD and FM while various programmes on freedom fighters will also be aired during the festival.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar would visit
Sangrur in Punjab from where Udham Singh hailed while Health Minister J P Nadda would visit the birthplace of Khudiram Bose.
While Rural Development minister Narendra Singh Tomar would visit Allahabad which is closely associated with Jawaharlal Nehru and Madan Mohan Malviya, Sports minister Vijay Goel will go to Manipur to honour Rani Gaidinliu.
Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma would visit the birthplace of Mangal Pandey while HRD minister Prakash Javadekar would go to Gorakhpur.
Giving details of events planned by ministries, Naidu said that will be a mass recitation of the National Anthem by all students at 11 am on August 23 in all 15 lakh schools and 40 thousand colleges simultaneously.
The WCD ministry has planned a campaign to highlight the important role played by women in Independence struggle while special rakhis are being designed for jawans at borders.
The Textiles Ministry is organising - Colours of Independence - a pan India campaign at 70 cities. Huge fabric panel with the local handloom or motif will be placed where people congregate and adequate quantity of four colours , saffron, white, orange and blue will be made available.
People will be encouraged to express through colour on fabric their own interpretation of independence, Naidu said.
Illumination of all government buildings in Delhi is being done by CPWD, he said.
Use of Khadi to be promoted in a big way during the 15-day celebratory campaign through KVIC - An Air India flight is being flagged off on the sector Ahmedabad - London. Complimentary jackets to crew, pilots and passengers of 1 st and business class are being given.
Important historic events like Quit India Day (August 9) Hyderabad Liberation Day (September 17), Goa Liberation Day (December 19) to be recaptured during celebrations, Naidu said.
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Naidu also inaugurated a photo exhibition here in the capital.
The exhibition will be open to the public from August 12 to 18 from2 pm to 9pmeveryday. It has 70 exhibition panels and more than 300 photographs which highlight not only the freedom struggle but also the efforts at nation building since 1947, an official statement said.
The exhibition is broadly divided into two broad sections-the first section covers the period from the First War of Independence in 1857 to freedom in 1947 and how the public angst spread from Bengal to South India.
The second segment tracks the progress since Independence including the adoption of the Constitution, efforts at developing nuclear capabilities including the Pokhran test.
It covers a wide variety of subjects including Science and Sports. It also has a special focus on achievements made in the last two years including the changes in work culture, friendly relations with neighbours and other countries.
The exhibition also focuses on contribution of comparatively lesser known freedom fighters with rare photographs retrieved from Photo Division, DAVP regional offices and state DIPRs. The exhibition also has an exhibition of books on India's freedom struggle from Publications Division, the statement added.
