How did chief ministers get the right to hoist the national flag 50 years ago?

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in February 1974 pointing out the “injustice” being rendered to elected Chief Ministers of state.

Chennai: Only in 1974, 27 years after India gained Independence, chief ministers of states got the opportunity to hoist the national tricolour on the occasion of Independence Day. Till then, governors were doing the honours on both Independence Day and Republic Day which irked the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

Karunanidhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in February 1974 pointing out the “injustice” being rendered to elected Chief Ministers of state. Months later, in July, the Union Government issued orders that chief ministers would hoist the national flag on Independence Day, while the Governor would do the honours on Republic Day.

It was to this day, 50 years ago, chief ministers, for the first time, unfurled the national flag in their respective state capitals.

R Kannan, author of DMK Years and biographies of Dravidian stalwarts C N Annadurai and M G Ramachandran, told DH that chief ministers owe it to Karunanidhi that they could hoist the national flag on August 15 instead of the governor, the practice till 1974.

He said on February 2, 1974, at the launch of Murasoli Maran’s book titled ‘State Autonomy’, Karunanidhi spoke about the inability of chief ministers to hoist the national flag on Independence and Republic Days and termed it as the Centre’s ‘neglect’ of the states.

“Describing it as a matter of ‘self-respect’, Karunanidhi followed this by writing the prime minister that month to press for the same. In April, Karunanidhi passed the omnibus assembly resolution on state autonomy,” Kannan said.

In July, the Centre acceded to Karunanidhi’s request on the flag - a symbolic concession to the chief minister’s more ambitious demand for state autonomy. “Karunanidhi unfurled the National flag on August 15, 1974, and, after that, fourteen times,” Kannan added.

DMK leaders said Karunanidhi’s refrain was that even District Collectors were hoisting national flags on Independence Day, but Chief Ministers weren’t allowed to do the same honours.

A steadfast supporter of state autonomy and federalism, Karunanidhi had appointed a committee under the leadership of P V Rajamannar to examine all aspects of Centre-State relations and to investigate and identify the causes of unitary tendencies in Central-State relations.