August celebrations of 50 yrs, 6 days before everyone

The state cultural department is expected to pull out all stops to make a grand success of the festival day to be remembered as `Kranti Divas’. There are about 6,000 guests expected from all over India, about 1.5 lakh students, a cavalcade of over 2,000 vehicles and a budget of several crore.

A 300-feet stage is currently being erected where important scenes from the Indian struggle for independence will be enacted, while a celluloid screen in the background will bring to life the actual historical sites. “It is the pride and privilege of the government that such an occasion is being organised for the first time on such a large scale in the state,” says the Shiv Sena minister. The programme is being jointly coordinated with the Central Government. The Prime Minister will inaugurate an exhibition at the Tejpal Hall and take centre stage once the drama troupe, along with horses, completes its 45-minute extravaganza. Other guests include central ministers, all the chief ministers, speakers and leaders of both the houses in the Parliament and presidents of all political parties in the country.Navalkar’s ingenuous reason for the last group of guests “Most of them have at some time or other belonged to Congress.”

“Exactly at 6 pm, on August 9, the attention of the entire world will be focussed on Mumbai, on the function at the maidan,” he says of the programme, which will be telecast live. To add to the high drama, sirens from the fire brigade, mills and factories, as also cannons across the city will enforce a two minute silence. “We would like people, wherever they be, and vehicles on roads to stop for two minutes to observe silence,” says Navalkar. The list of nearly 8000 guests (only by invitation) will include freedom fighters, chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, foreign dignitaries and counsel generals, presidents of organisations and business chambers, and renowned artistes, lists of which have not been compiled yet.

About 1000 school students will be invited as volunteers from the National Cadet Corps (NCC). The ex-transport minister is also rather anxious about the traffic constraints in the city. The entire Chowpatty has been earmarked as parking area for a majority of the 2000 cars of VIPs, while 75 exclusive cars of VVIPs of the state’s executive will be parked at the `D’ ward parking space at Nana Chowk. The PM’s cavalcade will however be in the playground just behind the maidan. The day will begin with prabhat pheris led by noted Gandhian Usha Mehta and others which will begin from the Tilak statue at Chowpatty, wend its way through Mani Bhavan and end at the Martyrs’ Memorial in the maidan. “One thousand students will join the pheris and there will be 62 simultaneous such prabhat pheris all over Mumbai. In all 1.5 lakh students are expected to take part in this,” says Navalkar.

To lend an original flavour, songs of the relevant era have also been culled and incorporated. At 11.45 am, another play, Azadi ki jung will be staged at the Y B Chavan Pratisthan at Nariman Point by the Rashtra Seva Dal. Hitches however remain. Only six freedom fighters in the entire country, for example, are to be felicitated by the government though the candidates have not been shortlisted. Other questions too need answers. Who will hoist the flag in the evening in the august gathering? When will the invitations by courier go? Will chaos in handling VIP conveyance be avoided? And perhaps one of the main anxieties, will it rain that day? “We are doing our best to make it a water and sound-proof mandap. Our programme will be lost if the rains make a din,” observes Navalkar.