The national flag fell off the flagpole when Governor BD Mishra was hoisting it during the Republic Day celebration at IG Park in Itanagar on 26 January.
It was an awkward moment, but it was saved by the quick thinking governor, who instructed the flag keeper to hold up the flag for the ceremonial salute.
However, the state administration reacted harshly by suspending the head constable in charge of the flag, and ordering an inquiry. In their zeal to investigate a genuine mistake, the administration has added fiction to fact. The flagpole did not ‘crash into the ground’ as stated in the inquiry order.
“The flag rope was found broken and the flagpole crashed into the ground, which caused great embarrassment to the governor and his government, besides inflicting insult on the national flag,” the inquiry order reads.
The inquiry, to be led by the power commissioner, will ascertain the complete factors underlying the incident to fix responsibility and suggest remedial measures to prevent the recurrence of such an incident. The inquiry officer has been directed to submit the report within the next week.
Instead of going overboard, the state administration could have accepted that it was a mistake and moved on. But it fixed the responsibility on the head constable and suspended him on a day that should have been an honorable and memorable one.
If DGP SBK Singh and CS Satya Gopal have any leadership quality, and if they really are keen to fix responsibility, they should have taken the responsibility as heads of the state administration and police, even though what happened was accidental.
Distorted patriotism will not serve any purpose, and it should not even be attempted. The inquiry is a waste of time.