The Karnataka government has initiated a move for a separate flag for the state with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday stoutly defending this step after it came under attack from rival parties.
A nine-member committee has been formed by the Congress government and tasked with submitting a report on designing a separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it, an official said on Tuesday.
If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.
The Centre made it clear there is no provision in the Constitution for a separate flag for any state and the tricolour is the only flag for India.
"We are one nation, one flag. Legally there is no provision either for providing or prohibiting a separate flag for any state," a home ministry spokesperson said.
Home ministry officials said Karnataka already has a flag which represents only the 'people and not the government'.
That flag is not used in national ceremonies like Republic Day or Independence Day but on occasions like state foundation day, an official said.
But the use of that flag was also challenged in courts by some people and a decision on the matter is yet to be taken, the official, who wished not to be quoted, said.
The committee, headed by the principal secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture, was set up last month following a representation from noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa, and social worker Bheemappa Gundappa Gadada.
Puttappa and Gadada in their representation had requested the government to design a separate flag for 'Kannada Naadu' and accord it legal standing.
The panel comprises secretaries to the departments of Personnel and Administrative Services, Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, as also president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat, chairman of Kannada Development Authority, and vice-chancellor of Kannada University, Hampi, as its members.
The Director of Department of Kannada and Culture will be the member-secretary to the committee. The unofficial but widely seen red and yellow 'Kannada flag' that is hoisted in every nook and corner of the state on November one every year to commemorate the state formation day and used in the form of a scarf by Kannada activists was designed by Veera Senani Ma.Ramamurthy in the 1960s.
The Siddaramaiah government's move to form a committee is being considered as a departure from the stand taken by the earlier Bharatiya Janata Party government.
The Sadananda Gowda-led BJP government in 2012 had 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'.
Asked about the panel by reporters today, Siddaramaiah sought to know if there was any provision in the Constitution which prohibits the state from having its own flag.
"Is there any provision in the Constitution? Have you come across any provision in the Constitution? Did BJP people come across the provision? Then why they are raising?" he said defending the move.
On taking the step ahead of 2018 state assembly polls, he said, "Election will be in the month of April-May not now, not tomorrow, not next month."
Hitting out at the BJP, Siddaramaiah said, "Did BJP people say they do not want flag for Karnataka state? Let them make a statement that 'we do not want flag for Karnataka state'. The BJP people always level such a false allegation."
Condemning the move, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut demanded imposition of President's rule in Karnataka. Raut contended that the state government's demand is 'anti-constitutional and against the nation's integrity'.
"I think it is anti-constitutional for a state to make such a demand in a federal structure and is against the national integrity. Such a government should be immediately dismissed and President's rule be imposed there," he told reporters in Delhi.
