There are claims and counter allegations that our Union Minister for Human Resource Development (an euphemism for Education) has been to, or enrolled, at three different colleges. What is not clear is whether or not the lady, whose earlier claim to fame was that of a heroine in a TV soap opera, is actually a graduate. I have something in common with her, but not TV.

Fifty years ago, I also had made three futile attempts to graduate. The first was as a regular B.Sc student. I failed in one subject, and then opted to help my ailing father in business. Thereafter I enrolled for a B.A. course by correspondence. My father saw one of my answer papers on accounts that had been corrected by the university. I had learnt accounts from my father and value it to this day. When my father saw the corrected paper he said, “Rubbish, these guys don’t know accounts”. I concurred and rubbished the idea of further correspondence on the subject!

My father passed away not long after that, and my mother now insisted that I enroll for B.Com morning classes; while simultaneously helping her to look after the family. Unknown to her, I was bunking college to spend “quality” time with my girlfriend. So the three attempts to graduate, in three different streams, from three different institutions came to naught. Naughty of me!

Why am I reminiscing like this? The Minister’s, or my own, attempts at graduation are but a co-incidence.

In order to counter “anti-national” sentiment among university students, JNU being the latest culprit, the Minister in question has come up with a mind-boggling idea. At a recent meeting of Vice Chancellors of universities she intelligently proposed that a 200+ ft flag pole be erected at every university from which the national flag, the tricolor, is to be flown. The sight of the fluttering tricolor would have a sobering impact on those students hell bent on inciting violence. The learned VCs acquiesced in humble submission.

Does the tricolor, per se, invoke feelings of nationalism? Do we suddenly become “nationalistic” when the tricolor is displayed during the national anthem in cinema halls?

Cricket fans enthusiastically wave the tricolour, even when they migrate to England or Australia. Rather anti-national really, if they have become nationals of those countries.

During Anna’s angst, waving the tricolor was par for the course. The Jats in Haryana, violently agitating for reservations, are doing the same. It has become a symbol of protest rather than of nationalism. The men in black coats who recently assaulted Kanhaiya Kumar at the Patiala House courts were hysterically chanting “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” – apparently the other irrefutable certificates for nationalism.

As a social and civic activist I have to interact with all sorts, including such pseudo nationalists. Regretfully I must observe that they are more of anarchists than nationalists. Chauvinism masquerades as nationalism.

For this reason, eventhough I am an unlettered college drop out, I make bold to say that Smriti Irani has caught the bull by the tail. And thereby hangs a tale of gross miscalculation and immaturity. We cannot be offering simplistic or jingoistic solutions to complex issues; be they affecting universities and college campuses, or other volatile issues that are impacting our national psyche or social fabric today.

Hence, unlettered fool and unfettered thinker that I am, I cannot give a thumbs up to Irani’s “nationalistic” flag pole idea. As I mourn the death, or dearth, of intelligent engagement, I fly my flag at half-mast, for a half-baked idea.

(The writer is the convener of the Kanpur Nagrik Manch.)