There is a tragic story behind this viral picture of teachers-students hoisting the flag in flooded Assam

Assam is battling its worst flood in the last 29 years with over 15 deaths and close to 10 lakh people affected Four teachers and two students of Naskara Lower Primary School gathered to celebrate India’s freedom and hoist the tricolour while standing in knee deep water The picture became viral because of instructions given to record all Independence Day celebrations 

Rains lashed several parts of India on August 15. Assam is already battling its worst flood in the last 29 years with over 15 deaths and close to 10 lakh people affected. This, however, did not stop a few students and teachers in Assam’s Dhubri district to show their love for the country and raise the tricolour on  Independence Day.

In a picture that has gone viral on social media, four teachers and two students of Naskara Lower Primary School gathered to celebrate India’s freedom and hoist the tricolour while standing in knee deep water.

The picture shows the school’s head teacher Tazem Sikder, his colleagues Nripen Rabha, Joydev Roy, and Mizanur Rahman, and Class 3 students Jiarul Ali Khan and Haidor Ali Khan saluting the flag unfazed by their difficult condition. That is not where the story ends. The image happened to be uploaded to Facebook because there were instructions that every institution had to record how they celebrated Independence Day, otherwise no one would have known about this event.  The photographs have to be sent to Amir Hamza, the cluster resource centre co-ordinator who monitors at least 11 schools. That's the state government's rule, Mizanur says. Any school event must be recorded through photographs, reports the Telegraph. 

Photo by: Joydev Roy

After the picture went viral on Facebook, Mizanur wrote, ''Happy independence day to all.....I m the asstt teacher at this school, school name...1185 No. Naskara LP school.. under Fakirganj Police station. Dhubri....no need to tell how we are right now, pic will tell all the stories...i did not expect this kind of support....thank you all for sharing this picture.''

Rahman said that since they could not do much due to the flooding so they simply hoisted the national flag and sang the national anthem and the national song. What happened after the flag hoisting is tragic. Mizanur's 18-year-old cousin, Rashidul Islam, drowned in Fakirganj on August 15, a few hours after the flag-hoisting. In fact, Mizanur hoped that the image going would help to bring to the notice of the government how their village was suffering.