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Kirpal Parmar, the Bhartiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh, is delighted that the Government of India has upheld his objection to misuse of the national flag by Indian cricketers.
The Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, in a communication to the Board for Control of Cricket in India, said members of the cricket team cannot use the national flag on their helmets as it violates the national flag code.
When contacted over phone, Parmar, who was travelling from Shimla to Delhi by train, said he was not aware of the latest developments.
"If what you are telling me is correct then the Government of India has upheld my objections about the insult to the Indian flag by some players," Parmar told rediff.com.
He had raised the issue during the last session of Parliament and drawn attention to some pictures of Sachin Tendulkar's helmet on which the BCCI emblem was placed above the national flag.
"This was deliberate denigration of the national flag. If the players wanted to use it then it should have been above the BCCI emblem," Parmar had then argued.
According to sources in the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, even Rashtrapati Bhavan received complaints about misuse of the national flag and President APJ Abdul Kalam's office forwarded the same to the ministry for further action.
After Parmar raised the issue, BCCI secretary S K Nair wrote to the Sports Ministry seeking clarification on the issue.
"After we got the letter from the BCCI the same was forwarded to the Home Ministry for opinion. We sent two reminders before we got a reply from the ministry, which pointed out that the objections raised by some Members of Parliament are valid and the concerned cases came under gross misuse of the national flag code. The code clearly mentions that the national flag cannot be printed on dresses or used in any other manner except as per the laid down guidelines. We sent the communication to the BCCI on Februrary 11, 2005," a Home Ministry spokesman said.
Sports minister Sunil Dutt is in Hyderabad in connection with the Youth Games and could not be reached for his comments.