In a first, tricolour flutters atop Cardiff Castle
India’s Independence Day was celebrated on Tuesday in the land of the former rulers with two unique gestures: an overnight Freedom Run that began close to where the act granting freedom was passed in 1947, and the Tricolour fluttering atop the iconic Cardiff Castle.
Slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ rent the midnight air from the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square near the House of Commons as high commissioner Y K Sinha flagged off an enthusiastic group of nearly 300 people on a Freedom Run to India House.
Clad in T-shirts with the words India@70, the group held Tricolor beacons that stood out in the cool night air as they wound their way across prominent locations such as the Big Ben, London Eye and the Waterloo Bridge to India House in Strand.
In Cardiff, First Minister Carwyn Jones joined the celebrations at the Cardiff Castle, where, for the first time, a foreign country’s flag was hoisted. The flag arrived here after a journey that began in Allahabad on August 6 and travelled through Sabarmati Ashram in Allahabad, Jallianwalla Bagh in Amritsar, Jaipur and elsewhere.
Sporting a turban with India colours, Keshav Singhal, governor of India Centre in Cardiff, told HT that the Tricolour was flagged off in Allahabad by Justice Girdhar Mohan Malviya, grandson of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya,. Jones, who lauded the contribution of the Indian community in Wales , was joined by leader of the opposition in the Welsh assembly, Andrew RT Davies, Welsh Conservative leader Morfudd Meredith, and others.