Cong govt in Karnataka forms panel on separate flag for state

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 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 un-official 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 BJP 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 bicolour Kannada flag as the state’s official flag, as having a separate flag would be ”against the unity and integrity of the country.”

Puttappa and Gadada in their representation had requested the government to design a separate flag for ’Kannada Naadu’ and accord it legal standing.