Kharge highlights Sonia Gandhi’s editorial on relationship between National Flag and Khadi, says “Bapu’s khadi being denied its identity”

New Delhi [India], August 20 (ANI): Highlighting an editorial by Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the inseparable relationship between the National Flag and Khadi, party President Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that Mahatma Gandhi’s Khadi is being denied its identity and that the central government has failed to regulate the market.

“Bapu’s khadi is being denied its identity. The Government has failed to regulate the market, and khadi spun from semi-mechanised charkhas is being sold indiscriminately, and under the same tag as traditional hand-spun khadi. This is to the detriment of our khadi spinners, whose wages do not exceed Rs200-Rs 250 a day despite their back-breaking manual labour,” Kharge posted on the social medial platform X.

Alongside his tweet, Kharge also attached the news article titled “The ‘livery of India’s freedom’ is under threat,” written by Sonia Gandhi.

In her editorial, the CPP Chairperson said that the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has two aspects.

“The Prime Minister’s renewed call for a ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign in the week leading up to our Independence Day (August 9-15) offers us an opportunity to collectively introspect on our national flag and its significance to the country. His moral duplicity in paying deference to the national flag while pledging allegiance to an organisation that has remained indifferent to it is one matter. The rampant adoption of machine-manufactured polyester flags, with raw materials often imported from China and elsewhere, is another,” she said.

Sonia Gandhi in her editorial said that in 2022, the government amended the Flag Code of India to include “machine made…polyester … bunting” and simultaneously exempted polyester flags from the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“The Flag Code of India has historically required the national flag to be made of “hand-spun and hand-woven wool/cotton/silk khadi bunting”. Khadi, that coarse but versatile and sturdy fabric which the Mahatma himself spun and wove in his leadership of the national movement, is imbued with a special meaning in our historical and cultural memory. Khadi is at once a symbol of our storied past, and an icon of Indian modernity and economic vitality,” she said.

“In 2022, on the auspicious occasion of the 75th anniversary of our Independence, the Government amended the code (“vide its order dated 30.12.2021”) to include “machine made…polyester … bunting” and simultaneously exempted polyester flags from the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Thereby, it put them on the same tax footing as Khadi flags. At a time when it would have been appropriate to bind ourselves afresh to the service of our country’s national symbols, the Government chose to set them aside and pursue mass-market, machine-made polyester fabric. The Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha (KKGSS) in Karnataka’s Hubballi district, the country’s sole national flag manufacturing unit accredited by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), had to resort to an indefinite strike to call attention to the state-sponsored murder of India’s khadi industry,” Sonia Gandhi added.

The CPP Chairperson further alleged that the central government has failed to build a global audience for Indian handlooms.

“Government procurement of khadi has fallen as departments choose to ignore or overrule mandates that require them to do so. More worryingly, the Government has failed to build a global audience for Indian handlooms. At a time when consumers across the world are beginning to prize sustainable sourcing and fair trade, the fabric on which Gandhiji’s satyagraha was founded should have been globally treasured. Instead, even in his very own nation, Bapu’s khadi is being denied its identity. The Government has failed to regulate the market, and khadi spun from semi-mechanised charkhas is being sold indiscriminately, and under the same tag as traditional hand-spun khadi. This is to the detriment of our khadi spinners, whose wages do not exceed Rs200-Rs250 a day despite their back-breaking manual labour,” she said.