Flag Code of India Amendments 2022 : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Key Phrases: Flag Code of India 2002, Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Machine-made and Polyester Flags

Why in News?

As India is steering towards the 75th Independence Day on August 15, a controversy has started over the amendments brought about by the Centre to the Flag Code of India 2002.

The Flag Code of India brought into effect on January 26, 2002, acts as an overarching umbrella that brings together all laws, conventions, practices and instructions for the use, display and hoisting of the National Flag of India.
The Code states that a member of the public, private organisation, or educational institute is allowed to hoist the national flag on all days and occasions, ceremonial or otherwise, consistent with the dignity and honour of the flag.
The code has been divided into three parts:
- The first part contains a general description of the national flag.
- The second part talks about the rules for the display of the flag by members of the public, private organisations, and other institutions.
- The third part is about the rules for the display of the national flag by central and state governments, and their organisations/agencies.
The tricolour cannot be used for commercial purposes and cannot be dipped in salute to any person or thing.
The flag cannot be used as a festoon, or for any kind of decoration purposes.
The flags that conform to the specifications as laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards and bearing their mark can only be used for official display

The Centre has amended the Flag Code of India, allowing the national flag to be flown both in the day and at night if it is displayed in the open or on the house of a member of the public.
Earlier, the tricolour could be hoisted only between sunrise and sunset.
In an earlier amendment, the government had allowed the use of machine-made and polyester flags which were not allowed to be used earlier.
It is believed that amending the flag code will make the National Flag easily available and affordable to the general public.

The government has launched this campaign under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage people to bring the Tiranga home and hoist it in their homes between August 13 and 15 to mark the 75th year of India’s independence.
The aim is to motivate the people to take pledge to re-dedicate themselves to the tricolour for the development, bright future and security of the country, by hoisting the Tricolour in their homes.

A section of Khadi weavers is protesting against the amendments made to the flag code, as the demand for khadi flags has suffered as the new rule permits the use of machine-made and polyester flags.
The Karnataka Khadi Gramudyog Samyukta Sangha (KKGSS), a unit that spins the fabric used to make the national flag has halted operations and called a nationwide protest against the amendment.
The opponents are of the view that the amendments will mark the entry of Chinese made flags into India.

The Indian national flag is rectangular, with stripes in three colours: saffron, white, and green.
It has a 24-spoke navy blue wheel known as the Ashok Chakra at its centre.
It was adopted at a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on July 22, 1947.

The first national flag of India is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in Kolkata at the Parsee Bagan Square.
It comprised three horizontal strips of red, yellow and green, with Vande Mataram written in the middle.
The flag is believed to have been designed by freedom activists Sachindra Prasad Bose and Hemchandra Kanungo, the red strip on the flag had symbols of the sun and a crescent moon, and the green strip had eight half open lotuses.
In 1907, Madame Cama and her group of exiled revolutionaries hoisted an Indian flag in Germany in 1907 which was the first Indian flag to be hoisted in a foreign land.
In 1917, Dr Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak adopted a new flag as part of the Home Rule Movement.
It had five alternate red and four green horizontal stripes, and seven stars in the saptarishi configuration.
A white crescent and star occupied one top corner, and the other had Union Jack.

The design of the Indian tricolour is largely attributed to Pingali Venkayya, an Indian freedom fighter.
At the All India Congress Committee in Bezwada in 1921, Venkayya again met Gandhi and proposed a basic design of the flag, consisting of two red and green bands to symbolise the two major communities, Hindus and Muslims.
Gandhi arguably suggested adding a white band to represent peace and the rest of the communities living in India, and a spinning wheel to symbolise the progress of the country.
In 1931, the Congress Committee met in Karachi and adopted the tricolour as our national flag.
Red was replaced with saffron and the order of the colours was changed. The flag was to have no religious interpretation.

The Tricolour was altered to become the flag of Independent India.
Saffron on top symbolises “strength and courage”, white in the middle represents “peace and truth” and green at the bottom stands for “fertility, growth and auspiciousness of the land”.
The Ashok Chakra with 24 spokes replaced the spinning wheel as the emblem on the flag.
It is intended “to show that there is life in movement and death in stagnation”.

Source: Financial Express

Mains Question:

Q. Discuss the key provisions of the Flag Code of India? Also, highlight the major amendments recently made to the Code?(250 words).