On Tiranga Day, this joint session was floored

It was a joint session in Parliament again this evening. But this was unique. Both Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition Soni...

It was a joint session in Parliament again this evening. But this was unique. Both Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi sat on the same side. And when Vajpayee got up to speak, guess what he said? ‘‘I didn’t know Sonia Gandhi was coming or I would have thought twice about coming myself. But it’s a good thing. Because our notes should blend and from that blend should come music, a music that sabko jhak jhod de (stirs every soul).’’

Vajpayee’s remarks that evoked loud applause had found their resonance in what the audience had just heard: a soul-stirring rendition by the country’s legends of music during Tiranga, a programme to mark National Flag Day organised by The Indian Express.


Sharing the Centrestage: PM Atal Behari Vajpayee with Pandit Jasraj and Shivkumar Sharma at the Tiranga evening organised by The Indian Express on Sunday at Balayogi Auditorium in Parliament complex. Renuka Puri

Held at Parliament’s Balayogi Auditorium, it was a programme that straddled all the arts: a documentary on the flag, poems by Javed Akhtar on each shade of the Tricolour, then a musical interpretation of the spirit of each colour and the sense of each poem.

And this interpretation was done by the Masters of Indian Classical Music: Pandit Jasraj, Shivkumar Sharma, U Shrinivas, L Subramanium, Selva Ganesh and Vijay Ghate among others. Not only did they present individual interpretations, they wrapped up the programme with a stunning co-ordinated display that pinned wings onto each note from each instrument.

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Touching off this symphony were Akhtar’s poems, his first on the coloursaffron. ‘‘Surya ki pehli kiran / ek narangi kiran / subah jab chhooti hai dharti ka badan / muskurati hai yeh dharti… (when the first orange rays of the sun touch the earth in the morning, the earth smiles).’’ Pandit Jasraj chose to interpret it through the strains of the morning raga, Raga Bhairav. Jasraj chose to interpret it with the morning raga, Raga Bhairav. Appropriately so, to symbolise rejuvenation, or rather a reawakening.

After Akhtar’s verses on the colour white— which symbolises peace on the Tricolour— Shivkumar Sharma’s played Raga Pahari on his santoor, conjuring up visions of the tranquillity and serenity of the mountains through this folk instrument.

Mandolin wizard U Shrinivas played Raga Amritavarshini for green, which equals prosperity. Explaining his choice of raga, Shrinivas said: ‘‘Amritavarshini was composed by Saint Muthuswami Dikshitar in a prayer for rain. He performed it at a place where there had been no rain, and the moment he played it, the skies opened. Rain implies prosperity which is what the colour green on our national flag stands for.’’

The interpretation of the charkha was left to violinist L Subramanium who did it with a vigorous rendition of Raga Mohanam, his energetic instrumental gymnastics intended to convey ‘‘the liveliness and energy that the charkha represents for me’’.

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‘‘The charkha is superimposed on the white portion of our flag which touches both saffron and green,’’ he said post-show, as listeners lined up for autographs before leaving the hall. ‘‘It touches everything and joins everything. It is a force of unity.’’

The show was produced by Art and Artistes, a Mumbai-based arts promotion group run by Durga Jasraj and Vikram Shanker. ‘‘So much has been said on these themes that you tend to fall into cliches. That’s why we decided to do the programme in this fashion,’’ said Akhtar.

Earlier, while welcoming the guests, Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Indian Express, said that the celebration of the national flag by the country’s music legends was the most fitting event to be associated with. ‘‘Moreover, it conformed with the spirit of nationalism that was embodied in this newspaper’s founder Ram Nath Goenka whose birth centenary is coming up next year,’’ he said.