<p>The nation will celebrate its 66th Independence Day on August 15. But is it a national festival just as we have read in books and been told by our teachers at schools?<br /><br /></p>.<p>There is no formal order declaring Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti as national festivals, reveals a reply by the union government under the Right to Information (RTI).<br /><br />The revelation was made by the government in reply to a query by a class 7 student Aishwarya Parashar, who had sought certified copies of the government orders declaring the three days as national festivals.<br /><br />The query sent to the Prime Minister’s Office was referred to the home ministry. The response in May this year informed the girl that there were no such orders. <br /><br />“I just could not believe the reply and preferred an appeal thinking that there must have been some mistake,” Parashar said. But the appellate authority confirmed it. <br /><br />She was told there were some files pertaining to declare three days as national holidays.<br /><br />“However, notification declaring these days as public holidays requires extensive search among the published material in the custody of the National Archives of India. <br /><br />The applicant may visit the National Archives for a detailed search and cull out relevant information,” said Jayaprabha Ravindran, assistant director of archives.<br /><br />A shocked Aishwarya has now sent letters to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging them to immediately declare these days as national festivals.<br /><br />An earlier RTI query by Aishwarya had revealed that India has no national game, contrary to the popular perception that hockey was our national game.<br /><br /> She had also requested information on India’s national bird, national anthem, national symbol, national flower and national animal.</p>
<p>The nation will celebrate its 66th Independence Day on August 15. But is it a national festival just as we have read in books and been told by our teachers at schools?<br /><br /></p>.<p>There is no formal order declaring Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti as national festivals, reveals a reply by the union government under the Right to Information (RTI).<br /><br />The revelation was made by the government in reply to a query by a class 7 student Aishwarya Parashar, who had sought certified copies of the government orders declaring the three days as national festivals.<br /><br />The query sent to the Prime Minister’s Office was referred to the home ministry. The response in May this year informed the girl that there were no such orders. <br /><br />“I just could not believe the reply and preferred an appeal thinking that there must have been some mistake,” Parashar said. But the appellate authority confirmed it. <br /><br />She was told there were some files pertaining to declare three days as national holidays.<br /><br />“However, notification declaring these days as public holidays requires extensive search among the published material in the custody of the National Archives of India. <br /><br />The applicant may visit the National Archives for a detailed search and cull out relevant information,” said Jayaprabha Ravindran, assistant director of archives.<br /><br />A shocked Aishwarya has now sent letters to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging them to immediately declare these days as national festivals.<br /><br />An earlier RTI query by Aishwarya had revealed that India has no national game, contrary to the popular perception that hockey was our national game.<br /><br /> She had also requested information on India’s national bird, national anthem, national symbol, national flower and national animal.</p>