Current Affairs for UPSC Exam - Har Ghar Tiranga — taking the National Flag into Homes

Har Ghar Tiranga — taking the National Flag into Homes

For Prelims

About Har Ghar Tiranga Scheme

  • ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ is a campaign under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage people to bring the Tiranga home and to hoist it to mark the 75th year of India’s independence.

About Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

  • Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence and the glorious history of it’s people, culture and achievements.
  • It has been organised by the Ministry of Culture.

About Indian National Flag

  • Arguably the first national flag of India is said to have been hoisted on 7th August 1906, in Kolkata at the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park).
  • It comprised three horizontal strips of green, yellow and red, with Vande Mataram written in the middle.
  • The red strip on the flag had symbols of the sun and a crescent moon, and the green strip had eight half-open lotuses.
  • Madame Cama and her group of exiled revolutionaries hoisted an Indian flag in Germany in 1907 — this was the first Indian flag to be hoisted in a foreign land.
  • The Karachi Congress Session in 1931 adopted a different flag for the national movement. It was originally designed by Pingali Venkayya in 1923.
  • The original flag had two red and green bands to symbolise the two major communities, Hindus and Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi proposed to add another white band in between the two to symbolise peace.
  • However, the Karachi Congress decided to modify the flag such that, red was replaced with saffron and the order of the colours was changed. The flag was to have no religious interpretation.
  • Saffron on top symbolises “strength and courage”, white in the middle represents “peace and truth” and green at the bottom stands for “fertility, growth and auspiciousness of the land”.
  • The Ashok Chakra with 24 spokes replaced the spinning wheel as the emblem on the flag. It is intended “to show that there is life in movement and death in stagnation”.
  • The Constituent Assembly adopted our National Flag on July 22, 1947.
  • The Constituent Assembly passed a motion stating that “the National Flag of India shall be horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (kesari), white and dark green in equal proportion.”
  • The white band was to have a wheel in navy blue, which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka.
Protection of the sanctity of the National Flag
  • According to Article 51A (a), it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.
  • A person who is convicted for offences under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act of 1971 is disqualified to contest in the elections to the Parliament and state legislature for 6 years.

 Source The Hindu

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