Does Tricolor provoke communal tension in Kashmir?

K B Jandial
While the ruling BJP has failed to give official status to J&K Accession Day and celebrate in a befitting manner, Kashmir’s mainstream parties and the Congress opposed its celebration giving full space to the separatists to observe it as “black day” with complete shut down this year as well. The BJP coming to power in the State in coalition with PDP could not change the narrative of this historic day. While the major parties shied away from the celebration, some even opposed it; Pakistan dutifully supported the shutdown call. Is it the compulsion of vote bank politics?
By opposing celebration of a historic day and making insulting comments, these parties sought to create suspicion in the mind of the people about the finality of the accession. PDP remained elusive on the Day, NC did not like the idea at all notwithstanding Sheikh Abdullah’s whole hearted support for accession with India, rejecting two-nation theory of Jinnah.  The J&K PCC Chief dismissed the Day with a routine comment against BJP’s “divisive action” and said that “accession with India is there, but then there different opinion and different voices on it. There is nothing to celebrate.” What a statesmanship he displayed! The congress appears to be more receptive to the adverse opinion in Kashmir rather than the significance of the occasion. The most insulting comment came from the congress national spokesperson Mohd. Ali Khan during 9.30 P.M show on a private channel on 26th October.  While justifying congress aversion to Accession Day celebration and hoisting of National Flag on the occasion, he provocatively said, “Tricolor provokes communal tension in Kashmir.” Then stop celebrating I-Day and R-Day in Kashmir.
Whether it provokes communal tension in Kashmir or not but his irresponsible comment did provoke spontaneous criticism on the panel, the Consulting Editor Prof. Madhav Nalapat taking the lead. Khan violated the provisions of The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 which provides punishment for insult to national symbols.
In what manner the Tricolour is contributing to communal tension in Kashmir? What is the basis for such fanatical conclusion? Is saffron colour on the Flag worrying the Congress spokesperson or the Indian-ness that the Flag reflects?  Does he know that the Flag’s colours and the Ashok Chakra in its middle is not the “doing”of Modi but of the Congress party itself?
Doesn’t Khan know that India’s iconic Prime Minister and the late patriarch of Congress’s first family. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was among the architects of making Tricolour as National flag. It was he who on 22nd July, 1947, introduced a resolution in the Constituent Assembly. “Resolved that the National Flag of India shall be horizontal tricolour of deep Saffron (Kesari), white and dark green in equal proportion. In the centre of the white band, there shall be a Wheel in navy blue to represent the Charkha. The design of the Wheel shall be that of the Wheel (Chakra) which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath, Lion Capital of Asoka.” He had proudly said, “the Flag which I have the honour to present to this House for adoption lies history, the concentrated history of a short span in a nation’s existence”.
Elaborating it, he said, “I do venture to claim that in the past quarter of a century or so India has lived and acted in a concentrated way and the emotions which have filled the people of India represent not merely a brief spell of years but something infinitely more… So, when I move this Resolution, I think of this concentrated history through which all of us have passed during the last quarter of a century. Memories crowd upon me. I remember the ups and downs of the great struggle for freedom of this great nation. I remember and many in this House will remember how we looked up to this Flag, not only with pride and enthusiasm but with a tingling in our veins; also how; when we were sometimes down and out, then again the sight of this Flag gave us courage to go on. Then, many who are not present here today, many of our comrades who have passed, held on to this Flag, some amongst them even unto death and handed it over as they sank, to others to hold it aloft”.
In an exhaustive eloquent speech, he said, “It is a Flag which has been variously described. Some people, having misunderstood its significance, have thought of it in communal terms and believe that some part of it represents this community or that. But I may say that when this Flag was devised there was no communal significance attached to it. We thought of a design for a Flag which was beautiful, because the symbol of a nation must be beautiful to look at. We thought of a Flag which would in its combination and in its separate parts would somehow represent the spirit of the nation, the tradition of the nation, that mixed spirit and tradition which has grown up through thousands of years in India. So, we devised this Flag”.
Continuing with his widely acclaimed speech, Nehru said “Perhaps I am partial but I do think that it is a very beautiful Flag to look at, purely from the point of view of artistry, and it has come to symbolise many other beautiful things, things of the spirit, things of the mind, that give value to the individual’s life and to the nation’s life, for a nation does not live merely by material things, although they are highly important”. How does the Congress today find communal touch in the Flag? It must come clean.
Dr. Sarvepalli  Radhakrishnan,  who  represented United Provinces (present-day  Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand), and later became India’s first Vice President and second President of India, described the significance of the Tricolour  in eloquence with a  philosophical touch, that all leaders and others who would be working under the Flag must imbibe in them  all forms of renunciation, dedicated spirit and  disinterest in material gains.
Dr Radhakrishnan explained the colour scheme of the National Flag in unique way, “Here, we are putting in the very centre (of the Flag) the white, the white of the Sun’s rays. The white means the path of light. There is darkness even at noon as some people have urged, but it is necessary for us to dissipate these clouds of darkness and control our conduct-by the ideal light, the light of truth, of transparent simplicity which is illustrated by the colour of white.”
He said, “We cannot attain purity; we cannot gain our goal of truth, unless we walk in the path of virtue. The Asoka’s wheel represents to us the wheel of the Law, the wheel Dharma… Truth -Satya, Dharma-Virtue, ought to control principles of all those who work under this Flag… This wheel which is a rotating thing, which is a perpetually revolving thing, indicates to us that there is death in stagnation. There is life in movement.”Giving his interpretation of colours, Dr Radhakrishnan explained, “The red, the orange, the Bhagwa colour represents the spirit of renunciation it is said: Sarve tyage rajadharmesu drsta. All forms of renunciation are to be embodied in Raja Dharma. Our leaders must be disinterested. They must be dedicated spirits. They must be people who are imbued with the spirit of renunciation which that saffron, colour has transmitted to us from the beginning of our history…That spirit of detachment that spirit of renunciation is represented by the orange or the saffron colour and Mahatma Gandhi has embodied it for us in his life and the Congress has worked under his guidance and with his message. On green colour, he said, “The green is our relation to the soil, our relation to the plant life here on which all other life depends. We must build our Paradise here on this green earth”. He said, “If we have to succeed in this enterprise, we must be guided by truth (white), practice virtue (wheel), adopt the method of self-control and renunciation (saffron). This Flag tells us ‘Be ever alert, be ever on the move, go forward, work for a free, flexible compassionate, decent, democratic, society in which Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists will all find a safe shelter.” He also did not find any virus of communalism in the Tricolour, which today’s class of congress is trying to inject in it. “A member from Central Provinces  (now Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Chhattisgarh) , Seth Govind Das spiked the mischief being played on Flag’s colours and said, “There is no touch of communalism in the three colours of the flag… and no communal significance.” Saying that during Peshwas’ regime, it used to be the colour of the Hindus and the Rajputs used saffron dress and saffron ensign in wars, he drew Constituent Assembly’s attention to Mahabharata’s time and said that the flags were not known by colour as the flag flying over the chariot of Arjun had the symbol of Lord Hanuman and Karna’s flag had the symbol of the elephant. In the same tenor, he repudiated the impression about the green colour and said that during 1857 war of Independence, “the colour of the flag was green and under which we fought that battle”.
Sayeed Mohammad Saadullah, member from Assam, drew an analogy of colours from nature; “the saffron represents the condition of the earth, the scorched condition caused by the torrid heat of the Indian Sun. When the crystal-clear white raindrops and the water from the snow-capped mountains and rivers come down we get our areas converted into smiling green fields, the crops of which sustain us and conducive to the growth of the people”.
Saadullah said that India was represented in the different colours of this Flag and is known for her spiritual attainments. “The saffron, as is well known, is the colour of all those people who live the spiritual life not only among Hindus but also among Muslims. Therefore, the saffron colour should remind us that we should keep ourselves on that high plane of renunciation which has been the realm of our sadhus and saints, pirs and pundits.”
Next, he touched the white portion. “White for both among Hindus and Muslims is the emblem of purity… the white portion in this Flag should remind everyone who takes it up that we must be pure, not only in word but also in deed. Purity should be the motto of our life;-individually as well as in connection with the State”.
“Green reminds me of the fact that it was the emblem of the upsurge of India’s freedom. Green was the emblem of the Flag which was raised by Bahadur Shah Zaffar in 1857. But it has more than a sentimental or symbolical value to us Muslims because green was the colour of the Flag of the Muslims from the time of the great Prophet of Arabia thirteen centuries ago”, he added.
Chaudhri Khaliquzzaman, another member from United Provinces, said that while “a flag to look at is simply not a piece of cloth but a country’s flag symbolises its ideals and its aspirations, both moral and spiritual.” He said, “Every Muslim, Hindu and Christian will feel proud in hoisting this flag throughout the length and breadth of India…”
Mohammed Sheriff, representing Mysore State said that white, saffron and green colours, signified renunciation, purity or sacrifice. “Great spiritual significance is attached to them and these colours are venerated by all -Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis”.
During this illuminating and intellectual debate on National Flag in the Constituent Assembly, the illustrious freedom fighters who got us freedom did not find anything communal in the Flag. In fact, both Hindu and Muslim members of the Assembly smashed the mischief instigated by a few hotheaded persons on Tricolour in clear terms led by no other than Nehru himself. The truth is that Tricolour generates excitement and sense of pride among all INDIANS. It binds the nation. It is not for the first time that the Tricolour was to be hoisted in Kashmir to which Congress spokesperson had serious reservations? Or does he dispute the Accession itself? Khan has blasphemed the Tricolor which should not go unchallenged. Our politics has come to such a sorry pass that our leaders don’t mind putting nation’s revered symbols to shame, just to please some misguided elements. How shameful!  He owes an apology to the nation.
(feedback:kbjandial@gmail.com)

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