No info on ban on hoisting foreign flag or cheering foreign team: Ministry of Home Affairs

Bathinda-based RTI activist Harmilap Grewal had asked the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to provide the list of nations whose flag is banned/illegal to be displayed/hoisted within the Union of India by an individual on his/her house/establishment.

He had also asked for the list of countries whose sports teams or sportspeople are banned/illegal to be cheered in
India.

On ban on foreign country flag, the MHA replied to Grewal, “The information is not available with the undersigned chief public information officer (CPIO). The requisite information may be available with the Ministry of External Affairs. Therefore, your application is being transferred to Bharath Kumar Kuthati, Director CPIO, RTI Cell, MEA, under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005, for providing the requisite information directly to you.”

On ban on foreign sports teams or sportspeople, the MHA said, “The information is not available with the undersigned CPIO. The requisite information may be available with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Therefore, your application is being transferred to Neelam Arora, Under Secretary & CPIO, RTI-PG, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005, for providing the requisite information directly to you.”

Grewal said, “I was prompted to file this RTI after cases were registered against students across India for hoisting Pakistan flags during live telecast of a cricket match. If the MHA has no such information then how come police, which work under home department, are booking students for allegedly hoisting foreign flags and supporting foreign teams.”

Kashmiri students and others were booked and arrested under sedition in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s win over India in T20 World Cup cricket match in October last year. One Farukh Khan was arrested under IPC Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) for allegedly hoisting Pakistan’s national flag at his home in Dewas district of Madhya Pardesh in August 2020, he added.

Grewal said, “There are many such cases where a person is arrested for hoisting a foreign flag or cheering foreign teams. I am hopeful that the RTI reply from the MHA that it has no such information would help the accused in such cases.”