‘Shameful, unfortunate’ — Tricolour amid Capitol Hill rioters draws sharp Twitter reactions
India

‘Shameful, unfortunate’ — Tricolour amid Capitol Hill rioters draws sharp Twitter reactions

A video of Trump supporters outside Capitol Hill Wednesday shows someone waving the Indian flag amid the many American flags. 4 persons have died in the violence.

   
Screengrab of a video showing the Indian national flag at the protest outside Capitol Hill in Washington DC | Twitter

Screengrab of a video showing the Indian national flag at the protest outside Capitol Hill in Washington DC | Twitter

New Delhi: Scenes of US President Donald Trump’s supporters storming Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. have been flooding social posts all day. But amid the deluge, Indians were more surprised to spot the tricolour among a sea of American flags outside the Capitol building.

BJP leader and Lok Sabha member Varun Gandhi tweeted a video that showed the Indian national flag being carried by someone at the protest, and noted that this is a fight Indians did not need to participate in.

In the video, the flag can be seen in the lower left corner of the frame as Trump supporters cry out “We Want Trump”.

The supporters stormed the building as the House of Representatives and the Senate held a rare joint session to begin certifying the results of the presidential election held in November 2020 that gave Democrat Joe Biden a victory. Trump has refused to accept the result, alleging that the voter tabulation process is fraudulent, and called on supporters to “stop the steal”.

Wednesday’s violence is only the latest such instance of supporters rallying for Trump.

As visuals of the protesters clashing with police and walking through the Capitol Hill piled on, Indian leaders who spotted the video of the flag took to Twitter.

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said whoever was waving the Indian flag should feel ashamed.

Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor replied to Varun Gandhi, commenting that the flag is a warning that there are some Indians with the same mentality as the “Trumpist mob, who enjoy using the flag as a weapon rather than a badge of pride”.

Another Twitter user claimed there were some Indian-Americans among the mob at Capitol Hill. Journalist Arun Venugopal posted a screenshot of his conversation with one such Indian-American who claimed to be a witness to the storming of the building.

Calling it “shameful” that the Indian flag was part of the mob violence, a historian shared how during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the Indian contingent was one of two teams that did not raise their arms in salute to Adolf Hitler while marching past him.

Others on Twitter, including comedian Vir Das and actor-director Ram Subramanian, also condemned the presence of the Indian flag at the incident.

The pro-Trump mob was subdued after several hours, with the National Guard being eventually called out and more than a dozen protesters arrested. Four persons have died in the violence.

Several world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemned the incident and urged for restoration of democracy and a peaceful transition of power.

Later in the day, President Trump assured of an “orderly” transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden.


Read ThePrint’s 50-Word Edit: Capitol violence a lesson to all democracies to understand downside of electing demagogues