Controversy erupted over Independence Day celebrations organised by the CPI(M) in Kerala on Sunday, August 15, after opposition party Congress alleged that the national flag was hoisted at the same height as the CPI(M)'s red flag. On the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, the national tricolour was hoisted at the party’s headquarters at AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram by party-state Secretary A Vijayaraghavan. Former Congress legislator Sabarinadhan KS has demanded that the CPI(M) should be booked for a violation of the Flag Code.
"The party Secretary hoisted the national flag at the AKG Centre, but in a way of humiliating the national flag. As clearly mentioned in the National Flag Code, no other flag or bunting should be placed higher than or above side by side with the National Flag," Sabarinadhan said in a Facebook post. According to the flag code, no other flag should be placed higher than, or above, or even side-by-side to the national flag; nor should any object including flowers or garlands or emblem be placed on, or above the flag-mast from which the flag is hoisted.
"It's an outright violation of law that happened at the AKG Centre. The party flag has been given prominence over the national flag,” Sabarinadhan’s post read.
However, it is apparent from the pictures and the videos shared from the event that the national flag was at a higher height than the CPI(M)’s party flag.
The CPI(M)'s flag hoisting was much talked about, with speculation that it could be the first time that the party is celebrating Independence Day. Earlier, former Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President (KPCC) President K Sudhakaran had taken a jibe at the CPI(M) for celebrating Independence Day. While Chennithala said that it was “delayed wisdom” of the CPI(M) to celebrate Independence Day, Sudhakaran said, “those who celebrate Independence Day now are those who had propagated that August 15 was a danger.”
However, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member MA Baby told The News Minute that it is not the first time that the CPI(M) has celebrated Independence Day. Baby accused Congress of distorting and twisting facts. “It was the Communists who first demanded freedom for the country," he said. "This is the 75th anniversary of Independence. CPI(M), in the past too, has been part of the celebrations with the DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India, the party’s youth wing), organising events with mass people's participation. It was P Krishna Pillai, the then State Secretary, who hoisted the national flag on the Day of Independence. On that day AK Gopalan (a CPI(M) doyen) was in jail," Baby told TNM.
Meanwhile, at a separate I-Day celebration, BJP state president K Surendran hoisted the flag upside down first, to correctly hoist it in the second attempt.
Watch video of Surendran hoisting flag