Today, the Tiranga has won, says AAP MLA Somnath Bharti as work on tricolour starts in Malviya Nagar

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party MLA Somnath Bharti on Sunday said that his party along with locals and the RWA, had finally managed to secure a spot for the national flag at a park in Malviya Nagar, where he alleged the BJP was preventing the tricolour from being hoisted.

"Today, the Tiranga won," Bharti said, adding that he was pained at the BJP opposing the hoisting of the national flag in favour of "their own". He also said that while locals wanted the tricolour in the park, they were apprehensive of opposing the protesters and so with help from the MLA, PWD, RWA and every other local, they made the case for installing the flag and the work on it was started.

Bharti said that under the Public Works Department's initiative of setting up 500 national flags in the city, one of them was to be installed in the Maharaj Shoor Saini Park in Malviya Nagar. He said that the installation had all requisite permissions from the local civic body but when the PWD and his officials reached the spot to

start the work, they were stopped by people who said they wanted to put up a flag of their own "shakha".

Bharti had also raised this issue in the most recent session of the Delhi Assembly, following which, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, had in a scathing speech, accused the BJP of trying to obstruct the hoisting of the national flag.

Speaking of the time when the protesters stopped them from starting the installation of the flag, Bharti said, "I asked whether our national flag is opposed in these shakhas and why can't the shakhas be set up under the Tiranga — to which the concerned person responded 'No, our flag is distinct.' This appalled me.

Which entity in this country considers their flag to be more important than our beloved Tiranga?"

He went on to say that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had presented a "unique model" to take the country towards Deshbhakti which distinguished between "true and fake patriotism".

Even as the Delhi government goes ahead with the installations, Bharti said, "Wherever these flags were put up, many journalists, general public and senior leaders expressed that a special emotion is invoked in them whenever they leave their homes for work and come across the Tiranga several times on their way."