Tag: Flag

Baburam with Obama – a Nepali flag would have made it nicer

Posted on by Anand Nepal

In the following photo, our Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Hisila Yami are posing with the US President Barak Obama and Michelle Obama. The smile are great on all four faces but a bit odd are the flags – none of them has a Chandra and a Surya. The US flag represents Obama couple but there is no Nepali flag to represent the Bhattarai couple.

By the way the photo is taken, it is pretty clear that the photo is not a causal one and they meant it to be as official as they can. 

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Hisila Yami with the US President Obama and Mrs. Obama taken on 21st September 2011

The Americans would certainly not care to have an odd looking Nepali flag there but, the advisors of our PM should have pointed out the obvious – to have one of those flags to be a Nepali flag. I think, our PM should have asked to take the photo somewhere else if they were not willing to hoist our flag.

Some have even pointed out the fact that the tie on Baburam’s neck look a bit bigger than it should have and a saree would have looked better on Hisila. I don’t have such preference towards Daura Suruwal (and, I guess, it is no longer a National dress). But, the flag is a different case.

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Let everybody use National Flag on their vehicles

Posted on by Anand Nepal

Nepal is probably the only country in the world where people can’t have their national flag on their vehicles. The Nepali national flag is only allowed to be hoisted on the vehicles of high ranking leaders/officials including the President, Prime Minister, and Chief Justice among others.

Why can’t general citizens be proud of their national flag and have it decorated on their vehicles? I salute the owner of this vehicle with the Nepali flag attached to it.

Photo by – Bikash Achary (Bikash thinks it is the misuse of the flag.)

UPDATE: According to the Royal rule (1992 policy) only the following individuals can hoist flags in their residence, office and vehicles :

    • Members of the general public can hoist the national flag in their private homes and offices to celebrate the coronation of a king and his birthday, and to mark national unity day and democracy day.
    • The prime minister, chief justice, speaker of the House of Representatives, chairs of the upper house and the Royal Council, and chiefs of diplomatic missions may display a flag on their official residence, vehicle and office.
    • A 1959 government directive allows the ministers to hoist the flag on their official vehicles while commuting to and from official ceremonies.
    • In 1992, the deputy prime minister, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, assistant ministers and the deputy chair of the Upper House were given permission to affix the flag to their official vehicles for official ceremonies.

I am not aware of any changes to these rules. Please comment if you know of any government rules that make such provisions invalid.

Top 10 Best Flag Designs, Nepal should have been one of them

Posted on by Anand Nepal

In 2007, a website named Yard Flags has a collection of 10 best flags design from around the world. The top 10 list had missed the unique Nepali flag. Now, after 9 years, I saw that the website has gone offline. It was an interesting post so I am updating this post with the missing flags and a video report.

At that time, I had wanted tell the site admin about the uniqueness of Nepali flag and why it deserves to be on the top list. The site required to register before I could write a comment. So, I wrote a blog post to send a trackback. I wrote, “I believe the Number One design is Nepali flag.”

The reason Nepali flag should have been one of the top is because of it’s unique shape. No other flags in the world are shaped like a Nepali flag. All the flags in the world are rectangular in shape and Nepali flag is the only flag with two triangles. The flag is painted with red color in the inside and a blue border. The the shapes of moon on the upper triangle and the sun in the lower triangle are coloured in white.

Here is the “Top 10” list from this page.

10. Plenty of world flags contain dragons, but none quite as cool as the small Himalayan nation of Bhutan.

9 ) The flag of Toronto has a pleasing 1970-s style minimalism to it. Looks as if the Canadian flag has fallen down a gap in the giant T.

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