CM’s wife Bhuvaneswari unfurled the national flag: Breach of protocol?

On 26 Jan 2018, 69th Republic day, CM Chandra Babu Naidu (CBN) could not attend Republic day. As a result, CBN’s Bhuvaneswari unfurled the tricolour at the CM’s Camp Office-cum residence in Vijayawada and also took the salute. This raised a debate that, perhaps this is an instance of protocol breach and ideally, in the absence of CM, either deputy CM or other ministers should have done the act. Details as below.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was in Davos, Switzerland and on his way back from the World Economic Forum in Davos. He was expected to reach Vijayawada by 7am on Friday but he got stuck in Abu Dhabi due to bad weather and thick cover of fog. He could reach Vijayawada only around 5pm and so he could not attend the Republic Day celebrations. In his absence, Naidu’s wife Bhuvaneswari unfurled the national flag at the CM residence at Undavalli.

Probably this is the first instance of a protocol breach by Chandra Babu Naidu as he could not be present for receiving the governor E S L Narasimhan who took the salute at the parade and delivered the Republic Day address. One more breach of protocol is that- in the absence of CM, his wife Bhuvaneswari unfurled the tricolour at the CM’s Camp Office-cum residence in Vijayawada. As we are living in a democratic country and the very meaning of republic day is “ruling by public”, common man expects “representatives of people” to unfurl the flag rather than their family members who are not people representatives. Moreover, there is a clear protocol for doing these acts. However, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) sources said the event was taking place at the residence of CM Chandrababu Naidu and therefore, there was nothing wrong in his wife unfurling the flag. But others alleged that there was a breach of protocol and that a deputy chief minister or any other minister should have done the act and it is not just CM’s residence but also CM’s camp office.