Flying the flag of Bha_rata

[Guest guest]

I hope members know that Sister Nivedita once suggested a design for

India's National Flag which included Indra's Vajra. Her suggestion was

not accepted. It, however, ended up on Military ensignia used for

Param Vir Chakra.

 

http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/jun/13spec.htm

"It will be necessary for us Indians -- Hindus, Muslims,

Christians, Jews, Parsis and all others to whom India is

their home -- to recognise a common flag to live and die

for."

-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

July 22, 1947. As he moved the motion on the adoption

of the national flag in independent India's onstituent Assembly, Prime

Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoped the flag would carry a message of

freedom wherever it flew.

 

Other voices joined him. Sarojini Naidu said: "Under

this flag, there is no prince and there is no peasant, no rich

and no poor. There is only duty, responsibility and

sacrifice."

 

Freedom fighter Muniswami Pillai added that the flag

did not belong to the rich or the wealthy, but to the

depressed, oppressed and submerged classes.

 

Inspiring words.

 

Unfortunately, as time passed, the use of the Indian

flag became limited to a privileged few. Only VVIPs, government

offices and public sector undertakings were allowed the honour of

displaying the flag on their premises. The rest of India could fly the

Tricolour only on Independence Day, Republic Day and

Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

 

Yet, in a country where millions dedicated their life

to the freedom struggle, no one protested. Until recently, when a

spirited 31-year-old businessman called Naveen Jindal secured,

through a legal battle, the temporary right to fly the

national flag every day. The Supreme Court is expected to deliver

final judgment on the matter in July.

 

Meanwhile, an ecstatic Jindal displays the flag

outside his office in the posh R K Puram area in New Delhi. He even

has two small flags adorning his desk.

"Indians have never been allowed to fly their flag,"

he says. "First it was monarchs who flew it. Then, it was the Mughals,

who were followed by the British. After we became independent, the use

of the national flag became a symbol of power that was limited to a

few government officials. Do you realise that if Mahatma Gandhi were

alive today and not a minister, even he would not have been able to

fly the flag?"

 

Jindal's fascination with the Tricolour began during

his visit to the United States in 1990, where he studied for a

master's degree in business management at the University of Texas at

Dallas. One of the first things he noticed was the ubiquitous

fluttering of the American flag all over the country. The Americans

even patterned the flag on their clothes.

 

Then, on a casual visit to a Texas-based Punjabi

businessman, he noticed a framed Tricolour in a position of pride in

his host's living room. Jindal could not recall seeing the flag

displayed with such reverence in any home in India. Yet,he was

suddenly homesick.

 

The moment passed.

 

Soon, his popularity saw him elected president of his

university students'government. One of the perks of that position was

his own office room, where he wanted to display the Indian flag. The

university had no objection. Neither did his American friends. In

fact, within hours of him expressing this desire, anAmerican student

gifted him a huge nylon Tricolour.

 

"It was the first time I had held my country's flag,"

Jindal recalls. "It felt great." The flag soon became a point of

conversation as visitors began asking him about it, about the Indian

people and India.

 

Jindal returned home in 1992 to take over as joint

managing director of Jindal Strips Limited. He was

soon busy heading the Raigarh and Raipur plants.

 

Then came the turning point.

 

On January 26, 1993, he hoisted the flag at his

Raigarh factory. The next day, it was no longer

there. When questioned, the factory manager

explained that the flag could not be displayed daily.

Jindal was shocked and furious; he ordered the

manager to hoist it back.

 

"The flag looked so good," Jindal remembers. "It was

a symbolic way of showing our love for our country. Psychologically

too, it was great. The workers felt they were working for their

country, not for a company. The one common thing that bound us

together in our office was the flag."

 

Raigarh's collector, superintendent of police and

other senior government officials would occasionally hint that Jindal

was not allowed to display the flag. None of them, though, could

counter his argument: "If I cannot fly my flag in my country, where

else can I fly it?"

 

September 1994. S K Dubey, then commissioner of

Bilaspur, was staying at the Jindal Group's guest house, located

within the factory's premises in Raigarh. As he casually looked out of

his window, his unbelieving eyes fell on the fluttering Tricolour.

Angry inquiries elicited the information that it had been flying there

every day for more than a year.

 

Dubey ordered the superintendent of police to

personally take the flag down.Jindal, who was then in New Delhi,

received a nervous call from his factory officials.

 

"I was very upset," recalls Jindal. "How could they

humiliate us like this in independent India? We were flying the flag

with utmost respect."

 

The incident strengthened Jindal's resolve. "I

decided I would fight for my right to fly the flag."

 

First, he studied the Constitution. Then, he

approached Shanti Bhushan, a reputed lawyer with a penchant for public

interest causes. He even consulted some of the country's renowned

legal brains -- including Arun Jaitley, Harish Salve, K K Venugopal

and Soli Sorabjee. [Jaitley is now Union Minister for Law,Justice and

Company Affairs and Sorabjee is India's Attorney General.]

 

Though Jindal will not reveal how much he has spent

so far -- he claims never having tried to calculate -- he says he has

been charged reasonable fees. Sorabjee, in particular, has not even

sent a bill.

 

Jindal was told there were two clear laws on the

subject.

 

The first, the Prevention of Insults to National

Honour Act (1971), says the flag cannot be mutilated, burned, defaced,

torn or trampled upon. Offenders can be jailed for up to three years

or fined. But it does not prevent anyone from flying the flag in a

respectful manner.

 

The second law, the Emblems and Names (Prevention of

Improper Use) Act (1950), says the national flag or national emblem

cannot be used for commercial purposes. Nor can it be used as

packaging.

 

Jindal relaxed. He had not broken the law.

 

So, in October, he wrote a letter to the commissioner

of Bilaspur and the home affairs ministry, saying he was flying the

flag in his office premises out of patriotism and that it inspired

him. No Indian law, he added, prohibited him from flying the flag.

 

Jindal's officials tried to caution him against

sending the letter. They did not think it was prudent to annoy

government officials, particularly since they had a loss-making

industrial unit on their hands. But Jindal remembered what his father,

O P Jindal, had always told him: "If you are in the right, God will be

with you. No harm can come to anyone fighting for a just cause."

 

He sent the letter. But there was no reply. He shot

off a reminder. The commissioner of Bilaspur finally replied, saying

that everybody could not fly the flag. Only certain people, he said,

could fly it and improper use of the flag could invite punishment. The

home ministry explained that only certain high dignitaries could fly

the flag on their residences.

 

Jindal was appalled. "The government had turned the

national flag into a government flag."

 

The Flag Code of India says the national flag should

be flown on the official residences of the president, vice-president,

governors and lieutenant governors. But the code is an executive

instruction; it has not been passed by Parliament.

"You cannot take away a fundamental right of the

people on the basis of an executive decision," says Jindal.

 

On February 2, 1995, Jindal filed a writ petition in

the Delhi high court, requesting that all Indians and institutions be

allowed to fly the flag in a respectful manner. At that time, he did

not realise he was beginning a court battle that would last six long

years.

 

Says Jindal: "Javed Akhtar once said the moon helps

connect two lovers, irrespective of the distance that keeps them

apart. I think it is the same with the Tricolour. When a person flies

the national flag, he rises above his religion and political

affiliations and shows that he is a proud Indian. We are a diverse

group of people and this is one way to bind all of us."

 

In September 1995, the high court

allowed Jindal to fly the national flag on his premises. Its judgment

quoted former president R Venkataraman: "Our flag contains the

blessings of all those great souls who brought us to freedom. It

beckons us to fulfil their vision of a just and united India. As we

confront crucial challenges to our security, our unity and integrity,

we cannot but heed the call of this flag to rededicate ourselves to

the establishment of that peaceful and just order wherein all Indians

irrespective of creed, caste or sex will fulfil themselves."

 

Jindal started flying the flag again.

 

But, in January 1996, the Government of India

appealed against this judgment. In its special leave petition to the

Supreme Court, the government said the policy to restrict the use of

the national flag to the barest minimum was meant to ensure that it

was not dishonoured. Jindal, it said, had taken a questionable

position by imagining that one of the ways of showing his patriotism

and love for the country was to fly the flag. The petition pointed out

that there were millions of Indians who were not swayed by a desire to

fly the flag in their houses.

 

The apex court, on February 7 that year, stayed the

high court's judgement. As a dejected Jindal took down his flag, his

lawyer stopped him. Shanti Bhushan explained that he could continue

flying the flag; it would not be contempt of court since the judgment

had only been stayed.

 

At that point, his workers went to him saying they

also wanted to fly the flag. An embarrassed Jindal recalls telling

them only he would do so. In the seconds that followed, though, he

felt a strong sense of remorse. His fight, after all, was to give

every Indian the right to fly the national flag.

 

When the Raigarh collector noticed the flag flying

again, he sent an angry letter to the home ministry. The Government

of India then filed a contempt of court case against Jindal, which

has now been clubbed with the main case. Jindal explained to the court

that he had utmost respect for the judiciary and was not trying to

defy it or mean any disrespect by hoisting the flag.

 

The government, meanwhile, formed an

inter-ministerial committee headed by P D Shenoy, additional secretary

in the Union home ministry, to decide whether it could permit the flag

to be flown freely.

 

Jindal met Shenoy and the other committee members to

share with them his belief that the common man would not disrespect

the flag. He explained that, like the idols that people keep in their

houses, the flag too would be venerated.

 

In mid-April 2001, the government announced its

decision to liberalise use of the national flag.

 

On May 1 this year, Jindal's case again came up for

hearing. Asking the government to give a copy of the Shenoy

Committee's report to Jindal's counsel, the court reconvened for the

next day.

 

On May 2, Jindal's counsel complained that he had not

received the report. The court, taking strong exception to the

government's argument that the report was privileged, modified its

February 7, 1996, order.

 

Jindal hoisted the flag. "Let us think of the

millions of people who died after Independence without having the

pleasure of flying the flag. I would have hated to tell my son that he

could not fly the Tricolour as he was not a minister. Why should we

presume that commoners will not respect the flag? We have to trust

the people. It is their flag. If someone disrespects it, there is a

law to deal with it."

 

Once the court announces its final judgement -- this

is expected to happen some time next month -- Jindal hopes every

Indian will be free to fly the national flag.

 

"We should be able to celebrate our independence

everyday. If we can fly our flag, we will be a much prouder nation, a

much happier nation. We will psychologically think of our nation

before we think of ourselves."