Chief Minister Chouhan said that Prime Minister Modi has started the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga Abhiyan’ with an aim to encourage people to bring the Tiranga home and hoist it to celebrate the 75th year of India’s independence with enthusiasm. Its purpose is to inculcate the spirit of patriotism in the hearts of the people and to celebrate the Amrit Mahotsav of Azadi with the spirit of public participation. Therefore, we should buy the national flag from our income and hoist it. Chief Minister Chouhan threw light on the development story of the national flag in an interesting way. In the development sequence of the flag, a pictorial presentation of the various changes that came in the flag was made. CM Chouhan informed the students about the following points:-

Margaret Noble, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, prepared a national flag with the girls of Nivedita Girls’ School in Kolkata in 1905. Vajra was made in this flag, which was a symbol of power. A white lotus was carved in its centre which was a symbol of purity. The first national flag of India was hoisted on August 7, 1906, at Parsi Bagan Square Green Park in Kolkata. It had three stripes of red, yellow and green, with Vande Mataram written in the middle. Madame Bhikaji Cama and her fellow revolutionaries unfurled the national flag at the convention site of the Second Socialist Congress in Stuttgart, Germany, in August 1907. It was the first Indian flag to be unfurled on foreign soil. It was named ‘Flag of India’s Independence’. A new flag was adopted in 1917 as a major part of the Home Rule Movement aimed at establishing self-government in India. It had five red and five green horizontal stripes and seven stars in the shape of a Saptarishi.

In April 1921, Mahatma Gandhi felt the need for an Indian flag. The spinning wheel was made in the centre of this flag. Gandhiji asked Pingali Venkayya to design a flag with a spinning wheel. In this flag, white colour was also added along with red and green. The three-colour flag was prepared by Pingali Venkayya in the Congress session held in Karachi in 1931. This flag was adopted as the national flag of India. In this, red colour was considered as a symbol of sacrifice, white colour of purity and green colour as a symbol of hope. The spinning wheel, a symbol of the country’s progress, was added to its centre. On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted the national flag of independent India in its present form. It has saffron colour on the top which signifies strength and courage. It has white colour in the middle which symbolises peace and truth. Green is the colour at the bottom which represents the fertility, growth and suspiciousness of the land. At the centre of the present form of the flag is a circle with twenty-four spokes. The purpose of this chakra is to show that there is life in motion. Giving information about the length-width ratio of the Tiranga, the points to be kept in mind while hoisting the flag, the Flag Code of India, Chief Minister Chouhan said that the National Flag of India reflects the hopes and aspirations of the people of India. It is a symbol of national pride. Whenever the national flag is hoisted, it should be given a respectful place. It should be placed in such a place from where it is clearly visible. Where the flag is displayed in the open or is displayed at home by a person of the public, it may be flown during the day and night. The flag should always be flown with enthusiasm and lowered slowly with respect. If a trumpet is played while hoisting and taking off, care should be taken that the flag is raised and lowered at the same time as the sound of the trumpet.

Chief Minister Chouhan also resolved the queries of the students regarding the development sequence of the national flag. CM Chouhan answered the questions of Dev Baiga of Government Boys High School, Sohagpur Shahdol, Kumari Saloni Soni of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Boyan District Sehore, Anuj Parmar of Model School Bhopal and Kumari Sonia Meena.