After a week during which "anti-national" and anti-establishment protests have dominated the the national discourse, the Union government appears to have finally found a solution to the problem.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government on Thursday made it mandatory for all central universities to hoist the national flag at a height of 207 feet on their premises.
The weight of the flag, too, was specified – first misreported as 135Kgs, which was later corrected to 35Kgs.
The move is part of the government's bid to instil a spirit of patriotism on campuses following the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was charged with sedition for allegedly raising anti-national slogans on the campus during a protest on the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
JNU will be the first site where the tricolour is hoisted.
The decision was taken at a meeting of vice-chancellors of all central universities, which was called by Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani following the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula at University of Hyderabad last month. That incident had also triggered widespread protests over caste discrimination.
“The flag will symbolise the unity and integrity of the nation, under which higher education would flourish,” an official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
In keeping with the trend of the past week, the move to enforce nationalism polarised opinions on social media.
Others on social media, however, decided that satire was the best way to greet this newest development. Here's a selection:
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