By Matters India Reporter
Bellary, Aug 14, 2022: A youth was August 14 arrested for hoisting an Indian national flag with a “Jesus” sticker on the top of his house in Karnataka.
The police in Bellary, a major town in the southern Indian state, arrested one Raghu, a resident of Ganesh Colony, for pasting the sticker over the Ashoka Chakra in the tricolor.
Some rightwing Hindu activists noticed the change in the flag and asked Raghu to remove the sticker, but he refused.
Later, policemen from nearby Gandhinagar police station came to the spot and removed the sticker and arrested Raghu, reports udayavani.com.
Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to hoist tricolor on their houses to mak the 75th year of the country’s Independence. The campaign, “Har Ghar Tiranga” (tricolor in every house) encourages people to bring the national flag home and hoist it on three days from August 13.
The idea behind the initiative is to invoke the feeling of patriotism in the hearts of the people and to promote awareness about the Indian National Flag.
I think it is an act of religious extremism or hyper zeal by this devotee of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples to be humble like a dove and shrewd like a serpent (Mt.10.16). Perhaps Raghu didn’t have both the virtues: arrogance in the name of faith and community and ignorance of the rules of the country with regards to respect for national symbols as per the directives of the Indian Constitution Art. 51 A (a). May God give wisdom to all the citizens of this country to abide by the Constitution of India.
Who is Raghu? A Christian or a Hindu or a VHP/RSS worker? If he is a Hindu and has a link with VHP/RSS, then, he has played a “dirty game” to insult Christianity and Christians.
If he is a newly converted Christian, then, this is the height of mockery and an insult to the national flag.