New Delhi: At the Parliament’s midnight joint session as the gong sounds at 12 to signal the implementation of the one nation one tax regime of GST it will be only the fourth such occasion in history when such a sitting has ever been held. Such special midnight sessions have been organised three times before Friday.
The first such session was held to celebrate the country’s independence on the intervening night of 14-15 August 1947, when the Central Hall of Parliament was called Constitution Hall. A special session was called at midnight in which the first President Dr Rajendra Prasad, sat first time on his chair.
After this Vande Mataram was sung and Dr Prasad and country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru gave his famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech, which effectively announced the independence of India from the British.
The second the session took place at midnight was when the country’s independence completed 25 years.
