RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday unfurled the national flag to inaugurate the Independence Day celebrations at a Government-aided higher secondary school in Palakkad district of left-ruled Kerala despite an instruction of restraint issued by the district administration.
District Collector P Marykutty had late Monday night issued a circular to the management of the Karnakiayamman Higher Secondary School at Moothanthara in Palakkad asking it to restrain the Sangh chief from hoisting the flag saying that only elected people’s representatives or school authorities could do that as per protocol since the institution was Government-aided.
However, Bhagwat went ahead with the programme and unfurled the national flag at the school courtyard and delivered his Independence Day address to the students as per schedule after the RSS and the Karnakiayamman Educational Society managing the school stuck to their decision. The Sarsanghchalak was in Palakkad for a two-day RSS Baithak that started on Monday.
Marykutty told the media that the district administration would take action over the matter and would instruct the police to register a case. legal experts said that the administration could take action as per Section 188 of the IPC for disobeying an order promulgated by public servant. The Education Department has reportedly sought the management’s explanation on the matter.
Sources said that a case was likely to be initiated against the school’s manager and principal. The Tahsildar of Palakkad Taluk has reportedly found violation of the rules related to hoisting of the national flag and has reported this to the district administration but the school management stuck to its position that there had been no such violation.
“This was entirely a decision of the school management,” said U Kailasamani, a member of the management committee. “And this was absolutely legal. What has happened here has nothing illegal about it. It was not in violation of the rules. let the Government tell us that the RSS Sarsanghchalak is not a public activist. The circular had come very late,” he added.
The BJP alleged that the District Collector was acting like a branch secretary of the CPI(M). Party’s district president E Krishnadas said, “That is why such a circular was sent at 11.00 pm Tuesday. There is no rule that stipulates that only the school’s head can hoist the national flag. No circular can be issued on the basis of rules that don’t exist,” he said.
The development has already triggered a hot political debate in the State in the context of the tension prevailing between the RSS-BJP and the ruling CPI(M), particularly after the series of violent incidents that had hit State capital Thiruvananthapuram last month-end, including the brutal murder of an RSS functionary, E Rajesh, by a Marxist killer gang.
leaders of the CPI(M) and Congress were quick to term the unfurling of the Tricolor by Bhagwat as an act in violation of “the law of the land and rules” while the BJP rejected the criticisms saying that the District Collector’s order that politicians could not hoist the flag at
aided schools was not relevant in this case as the RSS chief was not a politician.
Addressing the students after unfurling the flag, Bhagwat said hoisting the Tricolor was not just a ceremony but it was a sacred duty. “It is our duty to remember the hard efforts and sacrifices of those who had laid down their lives during the Independence struggle… With our efforts and sacrifices we will make this world peaceful and blissful,” he said.
The RSS chief said, “With all our efforts and sacrifices, our land will become the Vishwa Guru… Our Independence is a very sacred thing to us. We have to protect it.” India did not get Independence in one day, he said.
The incident instantly triggered a war of words with the BJP justifying the RSS chief’s action and the CPI(M) and Congress denouncing it as disrespect for law of the land. Kerala’s Marxist law Minister AK Balan said, “This is nothing but misuse of and disrespect to the national flag. It is an act of anarchy that can derail our democracy.”
State BJP general secretary K Surendran countered the CPI(M)-Congress attack by stating that those who were asking the RSS chief not to unfurl the Tricolour were fools as they refused to learn lessons from history.