Bihar: BJP to hold collective waving of 75,000 national flags on freedom fighter Veer Kunwar Singh’s birth anniversary

The collective waving of more than 75,000 national flags could become a Guinness world record, beating the one held by Pakistan which waved 57,000 national flags once, according to state BJP leaders.

Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal held a meeting with top leaders of the party Wednesday to finalise the event. He called the 1857 revolt against Britishers “not just the first war of Independence but also the first war that invoked collective nationalism”. “We will organise many events to make it historic. Veer Kunwar Singh symbolises valour and indomitable spirit,” he said.

BJP spokesperson and one of the coordinators of the event Santosh Pathak told The Indian Express: “The idea behind the collective waving of 75,000 to 1 lakh flags at Kunwar Singh’s birth anniversary is to pay tributes to the nationalism invoked by him. Some people and historians dub the 1857 revolt as the fight of several principalities against the British but it was, in fact, the battle that invoked nationalism and gave momentum to our independence movement”.

Pathak said the programme would be organised as per the protocol required to set a world record. “People would gather at Jagdishpur from 12 districts, including Bhojpur, Kaimur, Buxar, Rohtas, Patna and Saran. Each person will hold a tri-colour of its original and prescribed size. The event will be recorded and all flags will be collected after the event”, said Pathak.

MLC Neeraj Kumar, spokesperson of the Janata Dal (United), the BJP’s ally in the Bihar government, said: “It was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who first said that history has not done justice to Veer Kunwar Singh and our government did try to acknowledge his great contributions. The 1857 war hero also took along people of all sections in the fight against the British. It is a matter of pride that a world record would be made by the collective waving of flags”.

Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) spokesperson Mrityunjay Tewari, however, termed it an “overdose of nationalism”. “Everyone knows what Veer Kunwar Singh means to Bihar and the Indian freedom struggle. The collective waving of national flags is just an attempt to get good optics and is an overdose of nationalism. Kunwar Singh does not belong to any party. Let the BJP first tell us how they contributed to the freedom struggle”.