60-yr-old mystery: Where's the Tricolour Nehru hoisted?

As celebrations of 60 years of Independence begin across the country on Wednesday, the national flags used on this historic occasion in 1947, including the one hoisted by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, appears to have gone missing.

At the stroke of mid-night on August 14, 1947, the first Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru had hoisted the first Tricolour in the Central Hall of Parliament amid the presence of august audience including Lord Mountbatten.

The next day a crowd witnessed the lowering of the Union Jack and the hoisting of Indian national flag amid thunderous applause at India Gate at 0830 hrs (IST). The Tricolour was also hoisted at Red Fort on the morning of August 16.

However, 60 years down the line no one knows where these flags are. There is no official record available about the whereabouts of these flags nor is there any move to trace them.

The search at places, which could possibly have these historic mementoes, drew a blank. The National Museum, Red Fort Museum, National Archives, Nehru Memorial, MEA Toshakahana, Rashtrapati Bhawan Museum and the museum in Parliament do not have the first Independence Day flags unfurled by Nehru.

The Ministry of Culture, which is coordinating the celebration of 60th year of Independence and 150 years of 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, is also clueless about the first flag of Independent India.

"I-Day functions are handled by the Defence Ministry and they should trace it. If the flags are traced, then they could be showcased in our museum,” said Union Culture Minister Ambika Soni.

A senior Culture Ministry official said there was an attempt to trace these flags during the celebration of 50 years of Independence in 1997. The ministry had written to the Defence Ministry also for tracing the flags. But they could not be found, as there was no record available.

"We have many mementoes associated with Parliament but not the flag hoisted on 14th August night. If it can be traced we would like to exhibit it in our archive,” said Frank Christopher, Director, Parliament Archive.

Lok Sabha Secretary General PDT Achary said, "No one knows where is the tricolour unfurled by Nehru in the Central Hall because there is no record of it. We have Nehru's "Tryst with destiny" speech in his original voice and Nehru's clay model at our recently opened museum at Parliament. But the historical flag is sadly missing."

P B S Senghar, Director Red Fort museum said "the museum was set up here in 1985 and though we tried to locate the flag of 1947, it could not be found."

The keeper at Rashtrapati Bhawan museum K K Sharma is also clueless.

"We have a flag planted by Sherpa Tenjing on the Everest Mountain in 1966 but not the first flags of Independence,” he said.

The inquiry about the flags at the National Museum, National Archive, Nehru Memorial and MEA Toshakhana also drew the negative response.

Splendid at 60: India is Asia's billionaire capital

India's emerging economic clout has made it Asia’s top spot for billionaires with its 40 richest businesspeople worth a collective $170 billion, up from $106 billion last year, according to leading American business magazine Forbes.

“India's top ten, worth $112 billion, account for two-thirds of that wealth,” it said in a special report on Monday noting,” India's rising fortunes are underscored by the increasing prosperity of its wealthiest citizens."

"India was one of the world's poorest economies when it won its independence from Britain in 1947. Incredibly, 60 years later, the country's emerging economic clout has made it Asia's top spot for billionaires," Forbes said.

This year, for the first time in two decades of wealth tracking, Forbes counted more Indian than Japanese billionaires in its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people.

Three Indians even made it to the list of the top 20 of the world's richest. Only the US had more billionaires in the top global ranks.

India's hot stock market, up 39 percent this year, and its robust real estate market helped swell most fortunes. The minimum net worth needed to make the cut rose to $790 million, up from $590 million.

Lakshmi Mittal, who lives in London and forged a landmark deal in June to acquire Luxembourg rival Arcelor, remains No. 1 and is worth $25 billion. Mukesh and Anil Ambani unseated Azim Premji, who had been India's richest resident for years.

The two brothers, who split their business empire last year after a much-publicised feud, have found life alone much richer. Mukesh's fortune rose by $11.5 billion while Anil's increased by $9.3 billion. Still the spat continues with one of Anil's companies recently taking Mukesh's Reliance Industries to court over a gas supply agreement, Forbes noted.

Gandhi Father Of The Nation

Bedi relieved after release, leaves for Punjab

Elated over her release from the jail, former Bollywood actress Monica Bedi on Wednesday thanked the Almighty after she stepped out of the Chanchalguda jail on Wednesday morning.

"I got justice and I thank God who heard my prayers," said Bedi, who stepped out at 7.45 am from jail with a smiling face. She was lodged in the jail since November 12, 2005.

"I am happy and I thank God," she said.

When asked about her future plans, a beaming starlet and companion of underworld don Abu Salem, said "I want to spent some time with my family in my native place in Hoshiyarpur in Punjab. Later, I will decide about my future."

The Special CBI court in Hyderabad had granted bail to her on Tuesday but her release was delayed for a day.

Bedi left for Punjab via Delhi along with his father Prem Bedi.

Abducted Satyam Computers executive rescued

HYDERABAD: Abducted senior executive of Satyam Computers, V Satyanarayana, was rescued from the cluthces of abductors at Nekkonda area, about 190 km from Hyderabad.

Satyanarayana was kept in a house at Nekkonda village in Warangal district and was rescued late Tuesday night, police sources said.

Police located the area of his confinement with the help of mobile phone signals, sources said.

Satyanarayana (40), General Manager of Satyam Associate Insurance Verticle, was kidnapped by four unidentified persons when he was on his way to drop his kids to school in East Maredpally area of Secunderabad on Tuesday.

He is being brought to the city, sources said. However, the City Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh, when contacted, refused to either confirm or deny the rescue of the official.

Govt's lesson: Talk sex, but mind your language

Whether or not to talk about sex seems to be the biggest academic worry in schools across country’s four states.

After HRD Ministry’s ambitious National Adolescent Education Programme (NAEP) ran into trouble in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the Government was forced to tone down the content of the course manual.

Even the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) steered clear of using “explicit” words in the teachers’ manual of sex education to ward off potential objection from any quarters.

While topics like arousal, masturbation, ejaculation, intercourse and teenage pregnancy have been deleted from the teacher’s manual, diagrams and posters that describe the passage from puberty to adulthood - and were the cause of uproar - have also been done away with.

But the programme, currently being field-tested in 7,000 schools across the country, isn't all about sex.

As CNN-IBN found out, it also deals with topics as diverse as drug abuse and facial hair.

While strong reactions from teachers, especially in Punjab and UP, may have prompted the Board to water down the handbook, the revised version has been designed to ensure that the entire programme is not scrapped.

It's, of course, a totally different matter that most teenagers are pretty up-to-date as far as sexual terminology goes and the “distasteful” diagrams are no more explicit than the ones in their biology textbooks.

So, does such government censorship make sense in the age of Internet, mass media, child sex abuse and AIDS?

More importantly, is sex education meaningless without the use of explicit words? This was the big debate on CNN-IBN show Face the Nation conducted by Sagarika Ghose.

On the panel to debate the issue were Committee Member, National Adolescent Education Programme and Consultant Psychiatrist, VIMHANS, Dr Jitendra Nagpal,

Janaki Rajan, Professor, Jamia Milia Islamia and former BJP MP, B P Singhal.

Words that are wrong

For the NCERT Central Board for Secondary Education words like arousal, intercourse and teenage pregnancies are wrong. The words have been dropped from the adolescence education manual for fear that some might find them objectionable.

The BJP is constantly saying that sex education will lead create an immoral society, will lead to single parenthood, and other moral problems. But what is the problem with those, which are only descriptive words?

“The problem is at what age are these words given to children,” said Singhal.

When told that in an age of Internet and mass media, a child can get them online, Singhal remarked, “A 10-year-old can also learn to make a bomb on the Internet. But that doesn’t mean we teach him to do that.”

He felt the best way of imparting sex education is from a mother to a daughter and from a father to a son.

But Janaki Rajan held an opposing view and said there was a strong politics of sexuality.

“One of the major ways in which traditional societies control behaviour of the young is by taboos. This is just a continuation of that mind set,” she observed.

Kalam shares the nostalgia

He is leaving Raisina Hill as the people's President and says he has had no regrets. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai – his last as president – A P J Abdul Kalam speaks of his five years as the first citizen.

Rajdeep Sardesai: President Kalam, I want to start with the herbal garden because, in a sense, it typifies how you have changed the Rashtrapati Bhavan. You got musical fountains, herbal gardens and biodiversity parks – what was the purpose?

A P J Abdul Kalam: It’s people’s Bhavan, they must be proud of this place.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But people have no access to Rashtrapati Bhavan…

A P J Abdul Kalam: No, a million people visit Rashtrapati Bhavan every year.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You don’t think Rashtrapati Bhavan has become somewhat colonial? Most people think, ‘How do I reach the President of India? He is far away, a distant person.’

A P J Abdul Kalam: They e-mail, they reach here, or they write a letter and get here.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Do you think modern India needs institutions like a President or the Presidency?

A P J Abdul Kalam: In 1950, our Constitution was written and approved. Okay? It has withstood so far. So, how can I say if it (Presidency) is needed or not?

Rajdeep Sardesai: What I found interesting is that you seem to have changed Presidency rather than Presidency changing you. You don’t seem to be interested in protocol too much. You did what you thought was best for the country. Would that be fair?

A P J Abdul Kalam: See, Presidency required me to do certain tasks. Also, I have seen that as a President, it’s easy to do any innovation one wants in Rashtrapati Bhavan or even in nation. Nobody will stop you.

Rajdeep Sardesai: As you demit office, do you have regrets or a sense of fulfillment?

A P J Abdul Kalam: I found President is a way of thinking. If he thinks big, he can definitely make the nation. For example, take the India 2020 vision.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Let me ask you, do you see yourself as retiring now or are you going back to your first love which is teaching?

A P J Abdul Kalam: I think retirement is a continuous process.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Sir, we are in the 60th year of Indian independence. What is your message to Indians?

A P J Abdul Kalam: One great message is that India and its people should be self-confident and say, ‘We can do it.’