Party flags

On a recent chilly morning I was driving back home after dropping my tot at her school when I got confused about crossing an intersection. In fact the traffic signal ahead was wrapped in a party flag. Both the red and green colours of that piece of cloth were dictating me to adopt two opposite courses of action. There was no other car around.

Luckily a traffic cop standing on a nearby pavement caught my sight. He was telling me to stop. I applied brakes and requested him to ask party workers to pull down their flag for the convenience of commuters. He said he did try but their response was disgusting. They said: “Mind your own business.” Since that day he only minds his own business, he said.

Afterwards I noticed a number of pedestrian bridges, flyovers, road islands, streetlights and traffic signals decorated with flags of different political parties.

Interestingly, the number of flags has doubled since the general elections. It seems their election campaigns still continue and decorating public property is very much in vogue, yet I hope that the leadership of all parties may pull down the flags from traffic signals at least in the best public interest.—HA