The heated debate on ‘disrespecting’ national flag triggered by the incidence of defiance to stand by a family in a cinema hall of Mumbai lacks understanding of terms like patriotism, values, show off, respect & disrespect.
Patriotism is often linked to joining armed forces, police, saluting national flag or standing when national anthem is played, etc. Then the question arises, are others unpatriotic? Those who are not joining any forces or any services being disrespectful towards the nation? Certainly not. These are just the symbolic actions that we have attached to a particular value of patriotism. While a value is a subjective term differing from person to person, similarly the behaviour expressing a value varies from person to person. While standing for a national anthem may be a necessary condition for one to be patriotic, for others it may be feeling of love and affection inside for the fellow citizen and the constitution more important.
Not showing off respect does not mean disrespect. A child may not say to his parents that he loves them, but that does not mean he doesn’t! Values are the basis of behaviour one displays. While the spirit of constitution is to propagate this value, we often end up propagating just the symbolic action without the values. Compelling one to stand when national anthem is played in public is just the propaganda. Truer respect would be that a person’s respect for nation is so strong that he could not resist standing, irrespective of being in public or alone, when he hears national anthem being played. That binding force is what our great leaders always tried to propagate during the national movement. If they would have attached nationalism to just saluting national flag, probably we would not be having a flag at present.
As far as laws are concerned, if examined carefully, they restrict the citizens from disrespecting and not force them to display their respect. As our PM himself says, true service to nation can be in any form, even by saving electricity. Then why do we expect each and every one around us to follow and satisfy our point of view or our definition of respect and patriotism? Making an issue of not displaying respect as that of disrespect towards country is actually a disrespect towards the independence of a citizen and the collective sovereignty of all which constitute the pride and honour of the national flag and national anthem.
The First Opinion 