The Independence Day celebrations at Manekshaw Parade Ground started on a solemn note but turned festive as the event progressed with the parade, dance and parachute display.
Unlike the curtailed celebrations in the last two years, the event was a big hit this year with hordes of people queuing up to enter the venue. According to the government, 8,000 event invites had been sent out this year, and 1,700 police personnel were deployed. Still, people without invitations turned out in large numbers looking for someone with the invite to enter as ‘plus one’ but returned home disappointed.
The pavilion was decorated luxuriously with the tricolour and was packed with people from all faiths and different age groups. Children flaunted the tricolour painted on their cheeks. The event started with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unfurling the national flag, followed by the national anthem. Bommai then went around the ground in an open jeep, waving to the audience and inspecting the parade.
On the dais, Bommai opted to have the bullet-proof shield around his mike removed. He spoke about leaders like Gandhi, Patel, Savarkar and Nehru. He added that, even before the national freedom movement began, Kittur Rani Channamma and Veera Sangoli Rayanna had fought against the British in Karnataka.
Audiences punctuated Bommai’s speech with loud applause and cheers, even as they enthusiastically repeated ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Jai Karnataka’. A more fervent audience member followed it with a loud cry of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, which the crowd picked up. But more memorable for people in the audience were the parade and the performances. Praneeth Kumar S said, “I came because a friend of mine is participating in the parade. I also wanted to see the paratroopers’ performance.”
RT Nagar resident Jabeer said he was at the event last year too to watch the parade.
Units from BSF, CRPF, KSRP, and police dog squad among others, along with school students participated in the parade. As the units marched by, the crowd tried to capture the elegant march past with their phones. Then came dance performances by thousands of school students. Every performance beautifully depicted the country’s freedom struggle, its leaders, and the contributions of farmers and soldiers. Eight hundred students from BBMP Composite PU College, Herohalli, performed the play ‘Esuru’s Fight’. The play was on how the residents of Esuru in Shivamogga district refused to pay tax to the British during the Quit India movement in 1942.
The ‘tent-pegging display’ - wherein horse-mounted jawans showed how they would have deflated their enemies’ tents in old times - were applauded by the audience. Also the paratroopers stole hearts with their brilliant display.