The first item on the agenda was the singing of the first verse of Vande Mataram which, was rendered by Sucheta Kripalani. Algu Rai Shastri drew inspiration from the arts: “Freedom is a great art — even greater than the art of music and dancing. Abdul Kalam Azad indignantly said that he “was totally disappointed to find out that from one end to the other, narrow-mindedness reigned supreme” and “that with such small minds we cannot aspire to be a great nation”. He declared that “on the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.

Source: Indian Express February 06, 2019 18:43 UTC