Maharashtra DGP, Dr PS Pasricha, had to scratch his head while remembering the first line of the Preamble of the Constitution.
Team DNA decided to field five questions related to the Republic Day, the Constitution and the National Flag to the prominent citizens of Mumbai from different walks of life. Despite sounding clichéd, this exercise once again brought to the fore the fact that several elected representatives, bureaucrats and top police officers do not know many things which they must and many people from other walks of lives know them better than this lot of ‘office-holders.’
Believe it or not, the Maharashtra Director General of Police, Dr PS Pasricha, had to scratch his head while remembering the first line of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. The irony is that a plaque with the complete Preamble is installed right in the lawns of the state headquarters of the police in Colaba where Dr Pasricha has been sitting for years now!
More shocking was the case of Mayor of the city, Datta Dalvi. He neither knew the first line of the Preamble nor was he able to tell who the first Governor General of free India was, after Lord Mountbatten left. He was also unaware of who was called the architect of the Constitution. And in a perfect example of how unfair it is to judge books by their covers, jump to conclusions, give dogs bad names, our film stars are better informed than our bureaucrats and elected representatives.
When John Abraham was asked our five questions — which were asked to all others as well — he had answers for all of them. So did Chaiyan… Chaiyan item girl Malaika Arora. But for one question (who the Governor General of free India was), this dancing damsel had correct answers for all other questions!
These questions were:
- What does the wheel in Indian National Flag stand for?
- What is the first line of the Preamble to the Constitution of India?
- What are the colours of the National Flag (and in which order do they come?)
- Who became the first Indian Governor General of India, after Mountbatten ?
- Who is the architect of the Constitution of India?
And their correct answers were:
- The dharmachakra stands for peace
- We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens;
- Saffron, white and green, in that order
- C Rajgopalachari
- Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar
Datta Dalvi, Mayor of Mumbai only knew the colours of the National Flag. For every other question, he answered with a: “I will have to see.”
Brajesh Kumar Singh, DCP, Zone 1 knew all the answers
Dr PS Pasricha, DGP, Maharashtra: He could not remember the correct order of the colours of the national flag in the first go… after some time he recollected the correct order though. He thought the governor-general was Rajgopalan. Close one, that.
Abu Beg, senior police inspector, JJ Marg Police Station, Tanajirao Deshmukh, police inspector, Ghatkopar Police Station They didn’t know the first line of the Preamble nor Rajaji.
Ravindra Pawar, NCP leader in BMC, knew all the answers
Satish Borulkar, Public Prosecutor of Bombay High Court: correct answers for all the questions. Expected!
Gerson Da Cunha, Trustee of Action for Good Governance and Networking in India: Knew four of the five. For the first line of the Preamble, he said, “We the people of India... hmmm hmmm, well I don’t know.”
Jackie Shroff, Actor: This man simply could not answer the very first question and just hung up the phone…Hmm…
Stellar rating for film stars
John Abraham, Film Star, (Smartest of all who gave correct answers to all the questions without wasting a second or without scratching his head.) Malaika Arora, Actor (but for one, she too knew answers of all the questions. Long live Bollywood!)
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