Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday raised an issue about Coldplay singer Chris Martin allegedly disrespecting the Indian national flag while performing at the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday evening. The party has sought an unconditional apology from the singer, along with from the BJP and Shiv Sena as well since their leaders were also present at the event when the incident took place.
“The British are back again to insult our nation and its citizens. Condemnable act of Chris Martin and Coldplay. Chris Martin, BJP and Shiv Sena leaders should apologise to the nation. Was he trying to use the flag as lungi to do lungi dance,” tweeted NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik. “There is a video grab from Coldplay’s concert in Mumbai in which the band’s lead singer is seen insulting the Indian flag. We will register an FIR regarding this tomorrow (Monday) at the BKC police station,” Mr Malik further said.
The video of the alleged incident has gone viral on social media. The band, led by Martin, the vocalist and lead guitarist, ended the Global Citizen Festival India concert on a high note on by singing “Vande Mataram” with music maestro A.R. Rahman, along with waving the national flag.
Advocate Jamshed Mistry said, “There is an Act according to which any person can file a complaint for insults to the flag. It is rather strange that an event organised by the state government did not have any stated sequence of performances. Ultimately, such acts should be avoided.”
Coldplay performed several songs, including “Paradise”, “Viva La Vida”, “Yellow” and “Fix You”, for over an hour at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). Several Bollywood celebrities and some international artists also shared the stage.
The celebrities present at the gala included Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Sonakshi Sinha, Parineeti Chopra, Monali Thakur, Arijit Singh, Arjun Rampal and Suzanne Khan, as well as Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the crowd via a video link.
The festival launched in 2012 partners with Global Poverty Project, a movement aiming to end extreme poverty by 2030.
The event had run into a controversy after the NCP criticised the BJP-led state government for providing tax concessions, and said it had been planned by the ruling party to woo voters for next year’s BMC polls.
A spokesperson from Global Citizen said as all their members were travelling they would be able to issue a statement regarding the matter only by tomorrow (Monday).
