The Tricolour can hold its head high this year, despite the misfortune of its unfurling at the Red Fort by a man who does not deserve to hold it. It was a slightly freer air that our national flag breathed this 15 August — the youth of this country have given it back something of its true meaning.

It is not the sight of the Tricolour being hoisted at the Red Fort on 15 August that uplifts an old person like me, who has seen many prime ministers and Presidents, some utterly unworthy, perform this ritual.

What moves me are the images of the young holding the Tricolour with demands for justice on their lips. In those moments, the flag does not signify the pride of the nation. It becomes a symbol of the spirit of freedom, a yearning for liberty, a symbol of resistance against injustice, a symbol of the courage to face the violence of the oppressor with one’s own soul force.

Not that this has happened for the first time in recent years. We saw farmers camping at the doors of Delhi five years ago. They held fort for an entire year, fighting against unjust farm laws. More than 750 of them paid for it with their lives, but they did not budge.

The Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh too held their ground, Tricolour and Constitution in hand, as they opposed the communal reconfiguration of Indian citizenship. They weren’t as fortunate as the farmers and the students. State-sponsored violence and the Covid pandemic put an end to their rousing, memorable protest. They did not achieve their objective, but their fightback was a powerful assertion of the meek before the brute. Through that struggle, the Tricolour was their constant companion.

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© National Herald