Did Odisha MP fail to spot Indian flag hung upside down at SAARC meet?

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 18:

Indian flag was seen hung upside down as Odisha MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo delivered a speech at first South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Young Parliamentarians’ Conference in Islamabad.

The Bolangir MP reportedly didn’t protest the tricolour being unfurled upside down at the conference hosted by Pakistan.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) parliamentarian led a three-member team to Pakistan to participate in the two-day Young Parliamentarians’ Conference on ‘Peace and Harmony for Development’ in Islamabad which began on Tuesday.

Besides Deo, two other young Indian MPs Devji Bhai Patel of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Alok Tiwari of Samajwadi Party (SP) were a part of the delegation.

Meanwhile, Human rights activist Subash Mohapatra today filed a complaint with the Odisha police against three MPs for insulting the national flag.

The complaint said the Indian tricolour was seen hoisted upside down at the first SAARC conference.

“While the national flag was hung upside down, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo remained silent delivered his address during the conference,” Mohapatra said.

The MP further insulted the flag by posting his photograph with a wrongly hoisted national flag on social media, Mohapatra added.

However, Kalikesh took to micro-blogging site Twitter to clarify that the issue was raised with the organisers and they did the needful by putting the flag correctly.

“This was raised and promptly corrected by the hosts as is evident in the other pictures,” Kalikesh tweeted.

Notably, the conference is aimed at offering ‘young parliamentarians’ narrative’ as a prelude to the 19th SAARC Summit that Pakistan will be hosting in November this year.

As many as 50 MPs from Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participated in the conference.