Row Erupts Over I-Day Delhi Flag Hoisting, Kejriwal's Jail Request Draws BJP's Ire, Tihar Official Calls It ‘Abuse Of Privileges’

The AAP said that Delhi Minister Atishi will hoist the national flag on August 15, instead of CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is lodged in jail. However, this move has been opposed by the BJP citing precedent.

Delhi's Minister of General Administration Department (GAD), Gopal Rai, has written to the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of GAD, conveying Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's desire for Minister Atishi to hoist the national flag at the Chhatrasal Stadium on August 15, 2024 in his stead. In his letter, Rai stated, "I had a meeting with Chief Minister today. He desires that Minister Atishi should hoist the flag on 15th August 2024, at the Chhatrasal Stadium event, in his place… All the necessary arrangements be made accordingly."

A prior attempt at conveying this request has not gone down well with the authorities at Tihar Jail, where Kejriwal is currently lodged in connection with an alleged excise policy scam. Previously, the jailed Chief Minister wrote to the lieutenant governor, stating that Delhi minister Atishi would hoist the national flag in his place 

Tihar Jail Official Opposes Delhi CM Kejriwal's Letter To LG VK Saxena

The Superintendent of Tihar's jail number 2, in a strongly worded letter to CM Kejriwal, termed his communication as an "abuse of privileges granted to him under the Delhi Prison Rules, 2018", news agency PTI reported. The jail superintendent cited Rule 588 of the Delhi Prisons Rules, 2018, which restricts the content of letters written by prisoners to private matters only.

The letter further stated, "From a bare reading of the above rules, it is clear that your communication does not qualify in the permissible communication which can be sent outside the prison. Only private correspondence with a designated set of people, as defined above, is permissible. Therefore, your letter dated 06.08.2024 has not been sent to the addressee but has been filed."

According to PTI, the Tihar authorities warned that if Kejriwal continues to engage in such impermissible activities, they would be "constrained to invoke the provisions of Delhi Prison Rules, 2018, to curtail your privileges."

The letter also noted that the contents of Kejriwal's letter, handed over on 6th August, were leaked to the media without any authority, further constituting an abuse of the privileges granted to him under the Delhi Prison Rules.

Delhi BJP Slams AAP, Asks CM Kejriwal To Resign For Atishi To Hoist National Flag

Earlier, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva criticised Kejriwal, stating that the letter to the lieutenant governor regarding the flag hoisting "proves" that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders are "anarchists" and would remain so, PTI reported. Sachdeva emphasised that, according to national flag protocol, only the chief minister is authorised to hoist the flag in the states. He remarked, "Perhaps, the framers of the Constitution and the national flag protocol never imagined that one day, there would be a stubborn chief minister who would not resign even after going to jail."

Sachdeva further added that if the chief minister is unable to hoist the flag, the lieutenant governor of Delhi traditionally performs the duty. "From 1991 to 1993 and in 2014, when there was no chief minister in Delhi, the lieutenant governor hoisted the flag," he said, as quoted by PTI. He suggested that if Kejriwal truly trusts Minister Atishi to hoist the flag, he should resign and allow her to take the oath as chief minister.

Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said he was astonished that CM Kejriwal was concerned about who should hoist the national flag in his absence. “But he did not show any such concern when people were suffering on account of waterlogging, traffic jams, spike in vector-borne diseases and water shortage,” Yadav alleged, as quoted by Times of India.