Two days before the first Republic Day on January 26, 1950, the Constituent Assembly met for the last time on January 24, electing Rajendra Prasad unopposed as the first President of India.
Prasad dissuaded the Assembly members from praising him, saying that his work be assessed when he demits office. He announced that Jana Gana Mana would be the national anthem, and that the national song Vande Mataram would have a status equal to it as the inspiration behind the freedom struggle.
All members then signed the English and Hindi versions of the Constitution, following which the Assembly – which would become the Parliament of India – was adjourned sine die.
Two months earlier, on November 26, 1949, the Constituent Assembly had adopted the Constitution.
On January 26, 1950 – which marked the establishment of the Constitution – the first Republic Day parade was held in the national capital. The day was chosen as the Indian National Congress had decided two decades ago to celebrate January 26, 1930, as Independence Day or Purna Swaraj Day.
In his address to the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950, Rajendra Prasad, who was its President, announced: “The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the national anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it.”
Assembly member B Das sought to know who would be the members who would replace those who had vacated their seats. “The present position is that the United Provinces has sent two lady members in place of three now displaced. Orissa has not sent any lady member. No other province has made any extra effort to send in lady members. Women are about 50 per cent of the population. I do not want them to give battle at the time of the next elections on this ground,” he said.
Prasad replied, “According to the decision of the House and according to… rules there are no seats reserved for women. It was left to the electorate to elect women. Such persons as have been elected will come to this House and we cannot compel the electorate to send in women only.”
Then began the process of the election of the President of India. Secretary to the Constituent Assembly H V R Iyengar informed the members that the only nomination received for the post was that of Rajendra Prasad – his name proposed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and seconded by Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. “Under sub-rule (1) of rule 8 of the Rules for the election of the President, I hereby declare Dr Rajendra Prasad to be duly elected to the Office of President of India,” he said.
Nehru then stood up to congratulate the newly elected President. “It is more than three years since we began the work of this Constituent Assembly under your (Prasad’s) leadership… We have faced turmoil and crisis repeatedly but we have gone on with the work of making a Constitution for the public of India, and now we have accomplished that task,” he said.
“Fresh labour awaits us and another chapter begins in a day or two. Not only have we had experience of your able leadership during these three years of great difficulty, but many of us have known you… as a soldier of India, ever in the forefront of the battle for freedom.” the first PM said. “One task is accomplished today in this Assembly and this Assembly will cease to be, having done its work, or rather… emerge as the Parliament of the Republic of India.”
Sardar Patel spoke next, saying, “For three years you have been working as the President of the Constituent Assembly and Members have watched the way in which the proceedings of the Assembly have been conducted by you. At one time we were anxious and nervous because of your failing health due to the strain put upon you, but Providence has been merciful enough to restore you to your normal health and enable all of us to have the good fortune of seeing you elected as the first President and the Head of the State of the Republic of India.”
Prasad urged the members not to shower praise on him, as he found it embarrassing, adding that he was hardly deserving of the sentiments conveyed about him. After this, members B Das, H C Mookherjee, Hussain Imam and V I Muniswamy Pillai hailed the President.
Prasad then ended the discussion, not letting Seth Govind Das speak on his election. “I have always held that the time for congratulation is not when a man is appointed to an office, but when he retires, and I would like to wait until the moment comes when I have to lay down the office which you have conferred on me to see whether I have deserved the confidence and the goodwill,” he said.
He cited a story from the Mahabharata to say that listening to one’s own praise is akin to committing suicide.
“Arjun took a vow that he would perform a certain thing before the sun set on that day and that if he did not succeed, he would burn himself on a pyre. He unfortunately did not succeed… In fulfilment of that vow, he would have to burn himself. This, of course, was unthinkable so far as the Pandavas were concerned. But Arjuna was adamant in his resolve,” Prasad said, “Shri Krishna solved this problem by saying, ‘if you sit and praise yourself or listen to praise by others, that would be equivalent to committing suicide and burning yourself; So you had better submit to that and your vow will be fulfilled.’ Very often I have listened to such speeches in that spirit.”
Prasad went on to say, “The country today is facing very many problems and my feeling is that the kind of work which we have now to do is different from that which we used to do two years ago. It requires greater devotion, greater care, greater application and greater sacrifice,” adding that “I can only hope that the country will throw up men and women who will be able to take up the burden and fulfil the highest aspirations of our people.”
All members then signed the English and Hindi copies of the Constitution, followed by a collective singing of the national anthem. Prasad said Vande Mataram after this, and adjourned the Constituent Assembly sine die.
Subsequently, Nehru recalled the first Republic Day parade with satisfaction, stating that Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia, and his wife attended the event, where many Commonwealth ministers were also present. In his letter to Lord Mountbatten on January 29, 1950, he wrote: “The parade on the afternoon of the 26th January was perfect in its own way and impressed everybody present. We had this at this time in the Stadium and everything went off with clockwork precision. Very large crowds gathered in Delhi and there was much enthusiasm…”
In his speech at Ramlila Maidan on January 30, 1950, Nehru said: “There has been a great deal of activity in the country in the last one week. There have been programmes, illuminations and processions in Delhi and in other cities and villages too. And quite rightly so because the 26th day of this month is a great historic occasion for us. There have been numerous other historic occasions, but this particular day has a very special significance in the history of our country. On the Republic Day, it would be quite true to say that we have fulfilled the pledge that we took twenty years ago on the banks of the Ravi and reaffirmed it every following year throughout the country.”