On Monday, May 20, @PIB_India tweeted: “On eve of martyrdom of late PM Sh. Rajiv Gandhi, M/o I&B releases TV spot ‘Sadbhav – The Idea of India’ on MIB YouTube…” Within minutes, there was a tweet from @PMOIndia: “Sadbhav – The Idea of India: Special TV Spot…” @PIB_India is the official Twitter handle of the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. @PMOIndia, needless to say, is the official Twitter handle of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The ‘Idea of India’ special TV spot, one of the series of Bharat Nirman ads, being promoted through these tweets can be viewed here. It has little or nothing to do with honouring the memory of Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated by an LTTE suicide-bomber on May 21, 1991, while addressing an election rally at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

The tax-funded television advertisement is a cheap caricature of the 1977 Bollywood hit ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ that makes a cruel mockery of a terrible murder, not the least because Rajiv Gandhi’s tragic assassination had nothing to do with communal strife at home but Sri Lankan Tamil hatred of him. He was killed because he stopped pandering to the murderous LTTE.

These details are rendered irrelevant in the ‘special TV spot’ released on the eve of the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi who inherited the Prime Minister’s office from his mother, Mrs Indira Gandhi, in 1984 amid a hideous carnage that left more than 3,000 Sikhs dead. Congress leaders who led the mobs of Congress thugs baying for Sikh blood still roam free.

Rajiv Gandhi is remembered for his (in)famous statement, “When a big tree falls, the earth is bound to shake.” That was his reaction to the ‘action’ that followed Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. He is also remembered for banning Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, making India the first country to proscribe the novel.

His other major contribution to promoting ‘sadbhavana’, or ‘sadbhav’, was to subvert the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement in the Shah Bano case through a regressive Act of Parliament that demeans Muslim women and strips them of the equality enshrined in our Constitution. Public memory is notoriously short, but many would recall that, singed by the Bofors bribery scandal, Rajiv Gandhi launched the Congress’s 1989 election campaign from Ayodhya, promising, of all things, Ram Rajya, in a desperate attempt to cash in on Hindu sentiments in ferment during those days.

But, as mentioned earlier, this advertisement is not about Rajiv Gandhi or his claimed commitment to ‘sadbhav’. It is an election advertisement issued by the Congress-led Government at tax-payer expense to promote the Congress’s interests. It is an unabashed indulgence in crass vote-bank politics.

Watch the ad from 1:04 to 1:11 here. An innocent child, who has surely been taught in school that the three colours of the National Tricolour are Saffron representing valour, renunciation and sacrifice, White representing enlightenment and Green representing the fecundity of the soil of India, with the Ashoka Chakra symbolising Dharma emblazoned in the middle, is made to read out a crafty script-writer’s twisted version: Orange, White and Green. Next, the child’s unsullied hand is sullied by the Congress’s perverse politics: Green is smudged over Saffron.

Not only does the advertisement go against the message of the Tricolour it also belittles the lofty symbolism enunciated by none less than Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in the Constituent Assembly. The Flag Code quotes him thus: “Bhagwa or the saffron colour denotes renunciation or disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work. The white in the centre is light, the path of truth to guide our conduct. The green shows our relation to soil, our relation to the plant life here on which all other life depends. The Ashoka Wheel in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma. Truth or satya, dharma or virtue ought to be the controlling principles of those who work under this flag…”

The Government of India’s Flag Code describes the National Tricolour in clear, specific terms: “The National Flag shall be a tricolour panel made up of three rectangular panels or sub-panels of equal widths. The colour of the top panel shall be India saffron (Kesari) and that of the bottom panel shall be India green. The middle panel shall be white, bearing at its centre the design of Ashoka Chakra in navy blue colour with 24 equally spaced spokes. The Ashoka Chakra shall preferably be screen printed or otherwise printed or stenciled or suitably embroidered and shall be completely visible on both sides of the Flag in the centre of the white panel.” Read the Flag Code here.

Yet, bhagwa, kesari or saffron becomes ‘orange’ in this advertisement! It is likely to be watched by millions of children and, perhaps more importantly, voters. What’s the message that is being conveyed? And to whose benefit?

It’s a shame that the National Tricolour should now become an instrument of political propaganda.  Is no symbol of the ‘Idea of India’ sacred anymore?