Chennai: When Chief Minister M K Stalin unfurled the tricolor at the ramparts of Fort St George in Chennai on the occasion of the 77th Independence Day on Thursday, it marked the golden jubilee of Chief Ministers hoisting the national flag – an honour that was bestowed with the Governors till 1974 – after M Karunanidhi, as Chief Minister took up the issue with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In the address, Stalin made a mention of Karunanidhi getting the right for the Chief Ministers to lead the customary flag hoisting ceremony in all States referring to it as another struggle for independence as it was for more rights to the State. Indeed it took an assertive Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to fight for the State’s right when other States were not particular about it and finally win it for all.
Karunanidhi had then raised the question as to why the Prime Minister hoisted the flag on Independence Day when the President of India did the honours for Republic Day. If one were to follow the same tradition in the States, Independence Day should be for the Chief Minister.
With Indira Gandhi accepting Karunanidhi’s argument and according the right for Chief Ministers of all States to preside over the Independence Day celebrations, the Tamil Nadu government also instituted special awards that were presented on the occasion.
One of the awards was the Kalpana Chawla Award for courage and daring enterprise. On Thursday, Stalin, after hoisting the flag, gave away the award to A Sabeena, a nurse from Nilgiris for her heroic action in saving human lives in the recent natural disaster in Wayanad of neighbouring Kerala State.
Sabeena had used a zip-line to cross a broken bridge and reach out to people needing medical assistance. Other prominent personalities who were presented the special awards were 91-year-old Kumari Anandan, a veteran Congress politician, who won the Thagaisal Tamilar (Exemplary Tamil) award.
The Thagaisal Tamilar Award was instituted by the present DMK government and past winners are Communist leaders N Sankariah and R Nallakannu and Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani. The Dr A P J Abdul Kalam award was given to P Veeramuthuvel, project director of Chandrayaan 3 and ISRO scientist. Other awards were for bureaucrats, social workers and achievers in diverse fields.
