Delhi’s highest monumental flagpole, measuring 207-feet, was hoisted by Member of Parliament from Kurukshetra and chairman of Jindal Steel and Power, Naveen Jindal at Central Park on Friday. Unlike other flags, this flag, which is the largest in the country, won’t be pulled down after sunset. The flag, instead, will be specially illuminated at night. The gigantic flag made hundreds of visitors sigh in awe as they clicked pictures of the massive 60x90 feet fluttering flag.
“The flag would be sufficiently illuminated that would enable it to be left flying from dusk to dawn. India now has the largest number of monumental flags in the world,” said Jindal, while hoisting the 46th monumental flag. Jindal, who conceived the idea of monumental flagpoles, went on to say that he was, “inspired by Rahul Gandhi’s idea to hoist our National Flag near Parliament.” The celebrations were carried on till the evening with movies being screened followed by breathtaking pyrotechnics.
“The flag is very huge and its area is a mammoth 5,000 square feet. It wouldn’t have been possible to pull down and hoist such a huge flag on a daily basis. Four lights of 2,000 watts each will illuminate in the dark hours,” informed Commander KV Singh, Flag Foundation of India. The concept of monumental flagpoles was conceived and introduced by the founder of the Flag Foundation, Naveen Jindal in 2009.
The event, which witnessed the attendance of a large number of Delhiites and foreigners, started with the recital of Vande Mataram followed by the National Anthem. “I have never seen a flag so big. The feeling when it was going up with patriotic songs being played in the background was inexplicable. It gave me goosebumps. I am proud to be an Indian,” said Kunal Bhardwaj, an IT professional.
This monumental flag comes after a policy decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs on December 23, 2009, which allowed the National Flag to fly day and night on a pole of height 100 feet and above with proper illumination. Other guests present on the occasion included former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh and Chairman of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Jalaj Shrivastava.
The first monumental flagpole measuring 207-feet was installed at Kaithal in Haryana. Ever since, the foundation has installed flagpoles at 12 such places in the country. Besides India, there are 11 more countries, which have got such monumental flagpoles.