Weeks after he was booked by Chennai police for allegedly insulting the national flag, BJP’s S Ve Shekher expressed remorse. He responded through an affidavit filed on his behalf at the Madras High Court on Thursday.
S Ve Shekher’s apology comes days after the Cyber Crime Cell of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) told the High Court that it could grant him anticipatory bail if he apologised and promised not to make such remarks in the future. The BJP functionary, who had been questioned by the police over his remarks, had last month moved the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail.
“I submit, undertake and assure to this Hon’ble Court that for the rest of my lifetime also, I would never utter any word or act in any manner which would cause an insult to our Honourable Indian National flag, since I value patriotism for our Mother Land and Honour to our Indian national flag much more than anything material or even more than my parents or any of the near and dear ones to me (sic),” he submitted in his affidavit.
Adding that he made those remarks based on a ‘firm belief that Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation has in his own words documented the importance of the colours in the Indian National flag that people of all religions faiths shall always stand united’, he said, “..the same is represented as colours in the Indian national flag which are inseparable and that there shall be no separation amongst the people of this great nation on the basis of their religious faiths.”
The issue relates to a video posted by S Ve Shekher on his YouTube channel on August 3, 2020, in which the actor-politician claimed the colours of the Indian flag represented a different religion. He made the comments while reacting to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s condemnation of a saffron cloth being draped around the statue of former CM MG Ramachandran.
“I am definitely remorseful of having raised those questions to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, since I feel that any statement that he makes would be from his perspective and he is the best judge of his own statements,” the affidavit filed by S Ve Shekher stated.
A Chennai resident C Rajarathinam had filed a complaint with the police based on Shekher’s controversial video and an FIR was registered against the politician under the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act. In his complaint, Rajarathinam said that Shekher had deliberately used the national flag to compare with Chief Minister’s statement and ‘deliberately tried to mislead the general public by making alarming remarks and spread misinformation against the Chief Minister’. He said that the Chief Minister did not refer to the saffron colour in the national flag and that Shekher misinterpreted it on purpose.
“Further, S Ve Shehkar went on to misinterpret the colours of the national flag and made his own interpretation with an intention to incite communal and political hatred in Tamil Nadu,” the complaint added, pointing to the portion of the video in which Shekher said that the saffron colour in the national flag refers to Hindus, the white colour denotes Christians and the green colour indicates Muslims.
“By making such deliberate utterances, S Ve Shehkar has attempted to bring hatred, contempt and excite disaffection towards an elected government. By attempting to incite communal violence and promoting enmity between two groups by misinterpreting the colours in the national flag and the above-mentioned person has committed a crime by disrespecting the national flag,” the complaint added.