Today, on Facebook, i noticed a post about the hoisting of the national flag upside down by AAP and by BJP, in two separate incidents yesterday on the occasion of Independence day. Neither is this an isolated event. Bollywood, TV, sports, etc. While the post and its share might turn political, a couple of comments made me think about the whole issue and my experience yesterday in a different light.
A few days ago, there was a wave on whatsapp to request users to use the national flag as their DP, and then a wave against this by proving that it was illegal (which, it is not, by the way.) During this entire episode, i ended up reading the flag code of India 2002. I realised that there was nothing wrong in having the flag as DP anywhere, if it was done with proper decorum. I for one, am against such displays of my patriotism on national days or for that matter my joy on any other festival. But i do realise the need for people to do this and that they feel special seeing this. So, on the same whatsapp group, i ended up first criticising the call for changing DP to a flag and then staunchly defending that it was legally ok to do it.
This yesterday's fiasco and discussion about it on FB has provoked me to write this blog, not about the various insults to the flag or the right decorum, but about what i feel has led to it.
To form the base of my argument, i will point you to a website about the production of the national flag. Now, since only one agency in the entire country is authorised to manufacture the flag, everyone selling it should have the technically correct flag, right? But don't we all see those mis-printed flags all the time? flags with the Ashok Chakra on only one side? with the colours slightly off? with cloth being NOT hand-spun khadi or silk? I would not bother about them much as i am not a great stickler to honour of anything. But most people are. So, it is pertinent that a government office or a public functions should be using the right flags, isn't it? But over the years i have seen it again and again that not everyone bothers about the honour of the flag, even if displayed publically. Last republic day, i myself stopped the wrong flag from being flown in my office, i have seen the one sided Ashok Chakra flags being hoisted at other buildings. I see the honour being violated. I am least bothered about it. i am bothered about why it is happening.
I am currently reading about Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. If you are not already aware of the same, i vouch for it and suggest that you too should read a bit about it and try to inculcate it. So, it focuses on the what happens between events and the reaction it creates in a person. Extending that logic, let's analyse these flag fiascos.
The flag is supposed to be flown in a certain way.
At times, it is not and makes some people angry and other people have to apologise.
What happens in between, i.e., why is the flag insulted in the first place?
A: people are unaware of the flag code and other nuances. (non-khadi flags with colours slightly off and non-standard sizes fall in this category along with misuses, or other display mistakes, and some dishonours which an average person might not be aware of)
B: People are careless (one sided flags, upside down flags, wrong flags, etc. fall in this category)
C: Other reasons (I am focusing on B, so i damn care about this.)
In A, we can make them aware. But why does B happen? These are the blatant mistakes, which anyone should be aware of. So, let's go deeper into these. Since i have experience in a government office, i will just speak about that, though i am sure it is the general case.
Normally, the work of overseeing the tying up the flag for hoisting is given to some lower officer. This officer also has to look into some three four other things (there is always a dearth of enough good officers in government, this point can't be overstressed. ever.) on that morning. Sometimes, either s/he shirks from the responsibility and passes it on to someone else down the line or as everything happens at the last instant, is unable to oversee the process in person. So, generally a peon or guard does the job. This guy, due to ignorance or due to basic lack of understanding about how a flag will unfurl, ties it upside down which is noticed only when it's unfurled. But then, they keep doing this over the years. Even if this is their first time, there is ample time between tying up and unfurling to cross check, to try it out once, etc. This is not done. There is a lack of sincerity in doing this or for that matter, any job in most employees (or people, including likes of me, on other occasions.) So, mistakes happen, the flag is insulted, then someone notices it and it is immediately corrected. Then comes the blame game, politicising of the matter, etc.
Since i don't care about all this, why am i even writing this? Because, there is something else i observed yesterday.
I was present for the flag hoisting at a hostel school in a village and later attended their cultural program. There were more than 700 students from the hostel school and other schools in the village, along with about a hundred villagers and almost two dozen teachers. No, not a single flag hoisted yesterday in the village that morning was upside down, though we had a freak misfire sort of (the flag didn't unfurl on being tugged gently. Some overzealous teacher had tied it a bit too tightly, but it opened up and all was fine.) and i did notice some one sided cloth flags being waved by children (given to them by their teachers). Even this didn't bother me.
After having a procession around the village and unfurling about half a dozen flags at different important places in the village, while shouting some slogans or other, everyone came back to the school and assembled for the cultural show. This is how it looked from the stage.
During the function, kids were sitting in the sun, on the ground, as is the age old practise in every school. What was new to me, a kid raised in a Kendriya Vidyalaya, was all the teachers sitting near the stage, in shade, instead of roaming around doing small tasks and managing the crowd. I had already noticed this during the morning procession around the village, when most teachers were more interested in gossiping amongst themselves rather than watching the kids marching on the highway. During the function, the smarter bunch of kids quietly shifted to the shade of the verandahs while the younger children continued to sit in the sun. During my school days, caught in the shade would have meant punishment of standing in the sun. But here, it went on unchecked. Soon, all the kids were in the shade, from class 1 to class 12, while we were sitting like fools on the dais (in shade). The teachers were waiting for the cultural program to get over and go home. The Indian flag was furling in the sun, proudly on its mast, but was now alone.
I had observed this from the beginning from my vantage seat on the dais, had predicted this and had asked a teacher to manage the crowd. But since a single teacher was ineffective, the eventual happened. Soon, it was my turn to speak as a guest. The only thing i ended up speaking was shouting out at the kids and their teachers. The kids quietly went back to sitting in the sun and listening to my lecture on need of discipline for nation building and maintaining independence and blah (which i spoke because i have certain beliefs about religion, patriotism and stuff being akin to side wheels of a cycle which are necessary while learning to drive) while the teachers kept on sitting at their place. One or two even laughed out loud. Obviously, the students had never been taught discipline by their teachers. Later on, while speaking to the head masters and village elders, they applauded me for my act, while showed their disappointment at the teachers for not doing their jobs well - including teaching at school and this lack of participation in organisation and management.
Later in the afternoon, listening to Modi's speech from Lal Kila on Youtube, i heard my thoughts being voiced in a more articulate fashion. He asks us to do our jobs well, to serve as public servants, not think of what is in it for me or why bother and need for working hard to build the India of our dreams. He is aware of the ground reality, where people are running away from their duties and he expressed it on the occasion of Independence day.
If our teachers are shirking away from their duty, if they are not able to imbibe discipline into our next generation, if our officers are not interested to do their jobs, if the staff under them is unable to carry out a task sincerely, if this is not an isolated case but repeated in Delhi and Kashmir by political parties (who, ideally, are not doing it as a job but for a cause) and if this is happening year after year not just with our flag, i feel that this lack of discipline and dishonesty towards one's duties rather than the act of hanging the tricolour upside down is the insult to our national flag.
A few days ago, there was a wave on whatsapp to request users to use the national flag as their DP, and then a wave against this by proving that it was illegal (which, it is not, by the way.) During this entire episode, i ended up reading the flag code of India 2002. I realised that there was nothing wrong in having the flag as DP anywhere, if it was done with proper decorum. I for one, am against such displays of my patriotism on national days or for that matter my joy on any other festival. But i do realise the need for people to do this and that they feel special seeing this. So, on the same whatsapp group, i ended up first criticising the call for changing DP to a flag and then staunchly defending that it was legally ok to do it.
This yesterday's fiasco and discussion about it on FB has provoked me to write this blog, not about the various insults to the flag or the right decorum, but about what i feel has led to it.
To form the base of my argument, i will point you to a website about the production of the national flag. Now, since only one agency in the entire country is authorised to manufacture the flag, everyone selling it should have the technically correct flag, right? But don't we all see those mis-printed flags all the time? flags with the Ashok Chakra on only one side? with the colours slightly off? with cloth being NOT hand-spun khadi or silk? I would not bother about them much as i am not a great stickler to honour of anything. But most people are. So, it is pertinent that a government office or a public functions should be using the right flags, isn't it? But over the years i have seen it again and again that not everyone bothers about the honour of the flag, even if displayed publically. Last republic day, i myself stopped the wrong flag from being flown in my office, i have seen the one sided Ashok Chakra flags being hoisted at other buildings. I see the honour being violated. I am least bothered about it. i am bothered about why it is happening.
I am currently reading about Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. If you are not already aware of the same, i vouch for it and suggest that you too should read a bit about it and try to inculcate it. So, it focuses on the what happens between events and the reaction it creates in a person. Extending that logic, let's analyse these flag fiascos.
The flag is supposed to be flown in a certain way.
At times, it is not and makes some people angry and other people have to apologise.
What happens in between, i.e., why is the flag insulted in the first place?
A: people are unaware of the flag code and other nuances. (non-khadi flags with colours slightly off and non-standard sizes fall in this category along with misuses, or other display mistakes, and some dishonours which an average person might not be aware of)
B: People are careless (one sided flags, upside down flags, wrong flags, etc. fall in this category)
C: Other reasons (I am focusing on B, so i damn care about this.)
In A, we can make them aware. But why does B happen? These are the blatant mistakes, which anyone should be aware of. So, let's go deeper into these. Since i have experience in a government office, i will just speak about that, though i am sure it is the general case.
Normally, the work of overseeing the tying up the flag for hoisting is given to some lower officer. This officer also has to look into some three four other things (there is always a dearth of enough good officers in government, this point can't be overstressed. ever.) on that morning. Sometimes, either s/he shirks from the responsibility and passes it on to someone else down the line or as everything happens at the last instant, is unable to oversee the process in person. So, generally a peon or guard does the job. This guy, due to ignorance or due to basic lack of understanding about how a flag will unfurl, ties it upside down which is noticed only when it's unfurled. But then, they keep doing this over the years. Even if this is their first time, there is ample time between tying up and unfurling to cross check, to try it out once, etc. This is not done. There is a lack of sincerity in doing this or for that matter, any job in most employees (or people, including likes of me, on other occasions.) So, mistakes happen, the flag is insulted, then someone notices it and it is immediately corrected. Then comes the blame game, politicising of the matter, etc.
Since i don't care about all this, why am i even writing this? Because, there is something else i observed yesterday.
I was present for the flag hoisting at a hostel school in a village and later attended their cultural program. There were more than 700 students from the hostel school and other schools in the village, along with about a hundred villagers and almost two dozen teachers. No, not a single flag hoisted yesterday in the village that morning was upside down, though we had a freak misfire sort of (the flag didn't unfurl on being tugged gently. Some overzealous teacher had tied it a bit too tightly, but it opened up and all was fine.) and i did notice some one sided cloth flags being waved by children (given to them by their teachers). Even this didn't bother me.
 |
| A wrong flag during the procession, there were others too. |
 |
| Children sitting at assigned places. Even this was not well managed, but was orderly. |
 | |||
| Everyone had run away to the shade. Being an overcast sky, there was a chance of rain and if it did rain, i expected everyone to run to the verandahs. The few kids sitting at front were the last to catch to the exodus. |
Later in the afternoon, listening to Modi's speech from Lal Kila on Youtube, i heard my thoughts being voiced in a more articulate fashion. He asks us to do our jobs well, to serve as public servants, not think of what is in it for me or why bother and need for working hard to build the India of our dreams. He is aware of the ground reality, where people are running away from their duties and he expressed it on the occasion of Independence day.
for tl;dr,
If our teachers are shirking away from their duty, if they are not able to imbibe discipline into our next generation, if our officers are not interested to do their jobs, if the staff under them is unable to carry out a task sincerely, if this is not an isolated case but repeated in Delhi and Kashmir by political parties (who, ideally, are not doing it as a job but for a cause) and if this is happening year after year not just with our flag, i feel that this lack of discipline and dishonesty towards one's duties rather than the act of hanging the tricolour upside down is the insult to our national flag.
