Hello everyone.
This is Gyati Gupta, i hope u remember me. May be the title of my article or the content within it does not help you to crack your ca-final or ipcc paper but i assure that this would aware you with some unknown facts about our nation, and thus indirectly helping you to be a better citizen. The following facts will certainly quash your long held beliefs about the country. May be few of you are acquainted with following facts, especially those who regularly read the newspaper between the lines.
Let’s know how much you know India:
1. National Bird: peacock
2. National Animal: royal Bengal tiger
3. National Flower: lotus
4. National Tree: fig (banyan)
5. National Game: Hockey? Right? This game name, all of a sudden strike to your mind whenever the question of our national game pops up! But let me tell you friends, Hockey is not the national game of India.
In reply to an RTI query from a 10 year old girl, Aishwarya Parashar, The Ministry replied that country does not have a national game as no game has been notified as such till date.
Nevertheless, lets carry on with our LET’S KNOW INDIA GAME
6. Nation’s Father : Mahatama Gandhi
-But my dear comrades and friends, it may interest you to know that in an RTI query filed by the same girl where she asked who conferred the title of Father of Nation on Mahatma Gandhi, she got the reply ,that no such title has been officially accorded to Gandhi.
- Not contended with the response, she wrote a letter to the then President Pratibha Patil and P.M. Manmohan Singh and requested to issue an official notification declaring Gandhi the Father of the Nation. On a followup RTI petition seeking the course of action taken on her plea, she was informed that Indian Constitution does not permit any titles except education and military ones because of Articles 18(1).
-The first reference to Mahatama Gandhi as Father of the Nation goes back nearly 70 years when Subhash Chandra Bose addressed Gandhiji with this title in a conversation over the radio Singapore in 1944. Jawaharlal Nehru too had in his address to the nation referred him as such on his death. So the title of Father of Nation is not officially conferred to Gandhi.
So resuming our game once again:
7. National Language : Hindi. It is true, but partially! Hindi along with many other languages share the status of Official Language not exactly the National Language.
RTI Activist Manoranjan Roy sought to know the National language of the country, to which the information officer replied that there was no mention of national languages in the Constitution.
Roy was told that according to the Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, Hindi is the Official Language of the country. According to the most experts, 14 languages have been categorised as official languages in the Constitution. Later, one more language was added to the list, taking the number to 15.
8. National Anthem : undoubtedly Jana Man Gana.
But do you know that we have been reciting National Anthem wrong.
-Prof. Shrikant Malshute, a retired professor, challenged the word “Sindh” in the National Anthem of India on the grounds that when Rabindranath Tagore’s poem was adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1950 as the national anthem, the word “Sindh” considering the fact that the region was part of Pakistan partitioned from India.
- The newly replaced word “Sindhu” denotes the river that originated in Pakistan but flows through the Indian Valleys. He pointed out that the word was replaced by the Indian Govt. in January 1950, but the anthem continued to be sung and broadcast with the “incorrect” word.
-Prof. Shrikant then availed the RTI Act and obtained papers from the Ministry of Home Affairs which confirmed that the correct version of the national anthem had the word “Sindhu”. He then moved to Bombay High Court that agreed with his observations and said that the “Sindh” in national anthem is probably a mistake and directed the center to provide its point of view.
9. National Holidays: Aug 15, Jan 26 and Oct 2.
None of the here written dates is a national holiday!
Last year, Aishwarya Parashar, filed an RTI query to PMO requesting a copy of the particular Govt Order that specified national holidays. After passing through a couple of departments, finally Department of Personnel and Training answered that they could not find any Govt Order that notified that the above three days were Govt Holidays. Therefore, Aug 15 (Inependence Day), Jan 26 (Republic Day) and Oct 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) are not the National Holidays.
10. RTI Activist Manoranjan Roy filed a query asking whether it is India, Bharat or Hindustan?
The Home Ministry replied ‘no information on the subject’
11. Besides this, we have many other awe-inspiring replies from RTI Queries, that will help you know India and reality better. This forced me to tell you one more important RTI reply, which never disclosed the mystery but amplified the curiosity.
-Death of Subhash Chandra Bose and Lal Bahadur Shastri have been one of India’s greatest unsolved mysteries. When Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son demanded govt to unravel the mystery surrounding his father’s death via an RTI appeal, PM’s office refused to make the information public on the context that it could ruin Foreign Relations and violate Parliamentry Privilege.
- Similarly, Anuj Dhar of Delhi based Mission Netaji requested documents and records that Govt. Held in its possession on the mysterious disappearance of Netaji S.C. Bose. Joint Secretary to the P.M. replied “On verificationof the classified files held by PMO, it is held that their disclosure will prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries”
We must be thankful to the Powerful tool like RTI Act .Our RTI Activists also deserve an equal applaud of Appreciation.
12. The current capital of Assam is Dispur but it will soon be changed to Pragjyotishpur.
13. The state Jammu and Kashmir has two capitals:
In summer it is Sri Nagar and in winters the capital shifts to Jammu.
14. The total area of Jammu and Kashmir is 2,22,236 sq km. It includes 78,114 sq kms unde illegal occupation of Pakistan, 5,180 sq kms illegally handed over by Pakistan to China and 37,555 sq kms under illegal occupation of China.
The above content was the compilation of many strange facts about our country. There are dim chances of someone asking you such questions in any examinations, may be few of you might raise their eyebrows why i choose such unrelated topic for the article, but my purpose was to keep you people abreasted with such notable facts. Knowing costs nothing. We should continue reading and eking our knowledge.
I would like to end with this beautiful quote:
“Read for Success, Read for Information, Read for Awareness, Read for entertainment, Read for intellect”
CAclubindia
