National anthem sung at Chandigarh’s Open Hand monument

CHANDIGARH - Braving the rains and the indifferent attitude of the Chandigarh administration, scores of residents Sunday sang the national anthem at the city’s famous Open Hand monument to mark the Independence Day.

The monument was built by the city’s founder-architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s.

The Chandigarh administration had earlier refused to give permission to residents for their programme related to the singing of the national anthem, citing security curbs.

The administration was also reluctant to grant a security clearance to the gathering as there was a tea party of judges in the morning at the Punjab and Haryana High Court nearby.

However, the organisers of the programme filed a suit in the high court which gave them the permission to sing the anthem after 11.45 a.m. — after the scheduled conclusion of judges’ get-together.

“It is amusing that initially we were made to seek permission to assemble peacefully at an open space and then we had to adjust our timing because of the judges’ tea party. This is not the way in which things work in true democracy,” Gaurav Chhabra, who runs NGO Humlog here, told IANS.

“Though we had court orders with us but still we were stopped and unnecessarily questioned by the security staff,” he said.

Led by a brass band, people from different walks of life and from different age-groups reached the monument and sang the national anthem with fervour.

The surroundings of the monument, situated at the edge of a huge lawn, echoed with the slogans of “Vande matram” and “Bharat mata ki jai”.

Earlier, Chhabra, along with three other youngsters, reached the monument at 9 a.m., before the start of judges’ function, to sing the national anthem and to hoist the national flag there.

The Open Hand monument depicts the city’s “open to give and open to take” spirit and the Independence Day event held there was was named “Jai Hey”.

The monument is a part of the Capitol Complex that comprises three buildings - the high court, the assembly and the secretariat. — designed by Corbusier in the 1950s.

It was declared out of bounds for the public by security agencies as part of beefing up security of the high court complex.

Barricades were put up near it in April last year and only judges of the high court were allowed to enter the area.

However, after efforts of various social activists, the entry to the monument was partially opened to public in February.