Patriotic songs, rendering of national anthem, vande mataram and unfurling of the tricolour marked the 60th Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday amid tight security.

The City wore a festive look even as thousands of citizens, including women and children, attired in colourful dress, thronged the Field Marshal Manekshaw Parade Grounds to witness the I-Day function.

At the stroke of 9 am, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy hoisted the national flag from a decorated rostrum, while the police band rendered the anthem and an air force helicopter showered flowers over the national tricolour.
Standing in an open jeep, Mr Kumaraswamy inspected the guard of honour and took salute from each of the 12 contingents of State and Central forces.

The three-hour fete began with a colourful march past by battalions of Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Railway Protection Force (RPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and contingents of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), City Armed Reserves (CAR), Home Guards and Civil Defence Force.

Accompanied by police and military musical bands, hundreds of boys and girls from the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and Bharat Scouts and Guides and City schools marched past, drawing admiration from dignitaries in the VIP enclosure and rounds of applause from the crowd.

After the customary I-Day address by chief minister, the gathering was treated to scores of patriotic songs, folk dances and street plays by 2,000 children from government schools in rural and urban districts of Bangalore.
Attired in school uniforms and folk dresses, the children kept the audience spell-bound for over an hour with a colourful display of the pre-Independence struggle led by Kittur Rani Chennamma, Jhansi Lakshmi Bai, Bhagat Singh, Balgangadhar Tilak, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

The highlight of the cultural show was a song and dance performance by schoolchildren as a tribute to India and its freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to free the country from colonial rule.

A dare-devil display of adventurous feats by ‘Thunderbolts’ of the military police on motorbikes in several formations was the climax of the grand I-Day fete.