Commonwealth Games 2022: Here's why the symbolic Ashoka Chakra is missing from the Indian women's team jerseys

The Indian women’s cricket team would be expected to go all the way in the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022. They lost to Australia by three wickets in a close encounter in the curtain-raiser of the T20 women’s cricket tournament at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

During India’s Group A encounter against the Aussies, all eyes were on the Indian jersey for the ongoing sporting quadrennial event which had two important things missing. The first one happened to be the national tri-colour flags and the second was the Ashoka Chakra on the jerseys of the players.

In fact, the tri-colour has been embedded on the first letter of ‘INDIA’ i.e. I, with the only difference being just the Indian flag is shown without the Ashoka Chakra.

Without further ado, let us try to decode the exact reason behind the Chakra not being included on the jerseys of the Indian players.

Indian Government urged for the tri-colour to be used without Chakra

The Government of India had earlier made it clear that it had no objection to players using the tricolour flag without the Ashok Chakra on their helmets or costumes. This message was passed on by the Home Ministry to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla.

“The Home Minister has conveyed to me that cricketers can use the tricolour without the Ashok Chakra on their helmet or costumes,” Shukla said as quoted by the Hindustan Times back in 2005.

“There is no objection to the tricolour being used on the helmet or on the costume by the players. However, the national flag (tricolour complete with Ashok Chakra) cannot be displayed as per existing law,” a top Home Ministry official had said.

The Home Ministry has refrained the cricketers from getting the Indian flag embossed on their jerseys or helmets as it would result in the violation of the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act, 1971 and a violation would result in contempt of the Indian constitution.