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A tricolour with stripes of red, white and yellow with the Karnataka State emblem featuring a two-headed mythical bird in the middle is proposed to become the new flag of the State.
Karnataka has now become the second State after Jammu and Kashmir to have its own flag. J&K, however, has been given a special status under the Constitution and is hence allowed to have its own flag.
The Karnataka government, which approved the flag on Thursday, will now send a request to the Centre for an official stamp and an amendment to the Flag Code, 2002. Once it gets the Centre’s approval, the State can unfurl the flag at all official functions.
Karnataka already had a flag which was used for all major events including the State formation day of November 1; but it consisted of only two colours — red and yellow. The State government had in July 2017 formed a committee headed by Kannada litterateur Hampa Nagarajaiah, to suggest a flag for the State, after repeated demands from several political and pro-Kannada body leaders.
The emblem which forms part of the flag is used in all State correspondence. The flag’s colours symbolise piety or forgiveness (yellow), truth and peace (white), bravery (red). The State government seal for an official flag comes close on the heels of CM Siddaramaiah ruling in favour of Kannada lobbyists to remove all signboards written in Hindi and replacing them with Kannada and English languages.
Siddaramaiah was confident that the Centre will approve the flag as he pointed out that the Constitution does not forbid any State from having its own flag. “Today, we took a historic decision to adopt the Karnataka State flag. I thank Kannada organisations, leading Kannada writers and intellectuals for gracefully agreeing with the design. A long-cherished dream has come true,” he later tweeted.
However, the decision to have its own flag has not gone down well with the Opposition parties like the BJP. The party had earlier accused the Congress government of playing divisive politics, but since then has been silent on the issue.
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