The day after the flag issue snowballed into a major controversy, the Karnataka Government on Wednesday defended its move. After a Cabinet meeting, State law Minister TB Jayachandra said that there is legally nothing that can hinder the State to have its own flag. He also said there is no Act that prohibits a State’s individual flag.
He said, “There are three main Acts, which govern the issues of flags and flag hoisting. While it speaks of the National Flag and its protocol, the Acts remain silent on the issue of States having its own flag. It is a grey area.” “Since this is the case, I think there is no problem in Karnataka having its own flag,” he added.
He said the law department will now look into all the issues concerning to having State’s own flag, which include precedence and other judicial directives before taking any decision. The law Minister said Karnataka has its own State anthem without any official recognition.
“But we do sing it at public events. It is for Karnataka’s consumption that there is a State anthem. But this anthem is not given any official recognition by the Constitution or the judicial process,” he said.
Jayachandra said he will now call for the first meeting of the committee formed by the Kannada and Culture department to discuss the legalities and constitutional concerns raised in the public and by opposition, before asking the committee to take it forward.
“The setting up of the committee was an administrative decision and that has been taken by the department concerned. We will now look into the legalities with extra caution considering it has become a public debate, “ he added.
Stating that the committee formed on the issue will look into pros and cons about having such a flag, it said the state wants to be in the “mainstream” and did not want any “controversy”. The Karnataka Government has formed a nine member committee to submit a report on designing a flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it.
Defending the move, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had on Tuesday sought to know if there was any provision in the Constitution which prohibits the State from having its own flag.
Ahead of the Assembly polls, the Kannada flag issue assumes significance and expected to churn emotions. The Siddaramaiah Government’s move to form a committee is being considered as a departure from the stand taken by the earlier BJP Government.
As Karnataka is crucial for the Congress which has been facing defeat in across the country. In view of this the Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is playing appeasement politics to the hilt. He has gone to an extent recently to counter the religion-politics of the BJP by saying “Rama” in his name to uphold his Hindu credentials. He had said few days back “My name is Sidda Rama. I am a Hindu. BJP workers are not the only Hindus out there.”
The Sadananda Gowda-led BJP Government had in 2012 informed the Karnataka High Court that it has not accepted the suggestions to declare the bi-colour Kannada flag as the State’s official flag, as having a separate flag would be “against the unity and integrity of the country.”