Gorakhpur youth detained after unfurling Pakistan flag on I-Day

mangaloretoday.com

UP, Aug 17: As the nation celebrated Independence Day on Saturday, two incidents that hurt the country’s pride were reported from Uttar Pradesh. Subsequently, the police detained a youth for showing disrespect to the national flag.

 

In Gorakhpur, a youth not only unfurled the Pakistani flag in front of his house but also showed disregard to the Tricolour. Police detained Afroz Ansari after he spread the Tricolour on the ground and placed a chair on it to stand up and unfurl Pakistan’s flag. Later, he also posted his picture on a social website. However, his father Shaukat Ali tendered an apology and said, "We are true nationalists. My son is immature and unable to differentiate right from wrong. I feel ashamed of his act and apologise to everybody for what he did."

In another case, a madrasa in Muradnagar area of Ghaziabad decided to sing Allama Iqbal’s "Sare Jahan Se Achcha Hindustan Hamara" instead of Rabindranath Tagore’s "Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak Jaya He."

While there was no issue till the Tricolour was hoisted and unfurled, manager of Noorpur Madrasa Darul Uloom Shadia Qari Khalil Ahmad suddenly stopped the students from singing "Jana Gana Mana." and asked them to sing "Sare Jahan Se Achchaâ" He reportedly told the students that the national anthem was completely against the ethics of the madrasa. Thereafter, he asked the students to sing Iqbal’s poem. When asked, Ahmad told newspersons, "Sare Jahan Se Achcha is also a patriotic song and I don’t see any problem is singing it in course of the Independence Day function," he argued.

While Iqbal was a celebrated Urdu poet, he is also remembered as one who had pushed for the idea of carving a separate country out of India way back in 1930.