The Hindu : Disrespect to Tricolour: nod for Bill spelling out punishment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 24, 2003

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Disrespect to Tricolour: nod for Bill spelling out punishment

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi April 23. Parliament today approved the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2003 which provides for stringent punishment for disrespect to the national flag and symbols.

While adopting the Bill with a voice vote, Opposition members said respect to the national flag, national anthem and symbols could not be mandated and had to come from within.

Concern was expressed at the attempts by the ``sangh parivar'' in claiming that the saffron flag should be the national flag.

``Was this not a dishonour to the national flag?'' asked R.K. Anand (Cong.) who initiated the discussion on the issue.

Quoting a newspaper report, Obaidullah Khan Azmi (Cong.) sought to know what was the purpose of bringing in an amendment to the Act when the sangh parivar's headquarters in Nagpur did not raise the national flag on August 15.

Chandrakala Pandey (CPI-M) said dress designers should be prohibited from using the Tricolour to stitch shirts, caps and other garments, while Fali Nariman said rather than mandating it was essential to instil a sense of symbolism in youth.

He said Nehru's `Discovery of India', which was an inspiration to a whole generation, should be introduced in schools.

In his reply, the Minister of State for Home, I.D. Swami, said the amendment assumes significance in the wake of permission to hoist national flag even at homes and the need to hoist it in a proper manner.

He said if a social organisation like the Arya Samaj or Sanatan Dharma or any party like the Congress or the BJP hoist their own flags, it was not a disrespect to the national flag. The Bill, which was introduced on March 7, seeks to provide for imprisonment of more than one year for the second and subsequent offence under the Act.

It also proposes to amend the Act to insert the word ``disrespect'' to widen the scope of the expression ``insult''.

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