Don’t always show your fan colours

Flags of various countries adorn the apparel of people of various nationalities and hotel fronts in various nations. Things, quite naturally, start to flag when it comes to displaying the colours of a country considered unfriendly or downright hostile. But what does one do when a fan from an ‘antagonistic country’ decides to display his love for his hero by waving the flag of the latter’s country? Messi fans in Kolkata have no worries flaunting Argentina’s blue-and-white colours. And yet, four years after the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina, a Manchester fan of Diego Maradona may have thought twice about waving the Argentinian flag at the 1986 World Cup. Which makes one come to poor Umar Draz, a Pakistani fan of Indian batsman Virat Kohli, who made the ‘mistake’ of hoisting the Indian flag on his rooftop in Pakistan’s Punjab province to show his love for his hero. He has been arrested for treason.

One wonders what the reaction would be if an Indian, at least in its undisputed territories, hoisted a Pakistani flag to show his love for, say, Shahid Afridi. Which is probably why it has always been a better tactic to swoon over, say, Imran Khan, as Indian ladies (and gents) did in an era gone by, than to flag one’s ardour. The trick today would be to take a selfie with the object of worship or, at least, Photoshop it.