Karnataka arranges a panel to design its own state flag

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party in the state, does not support a separate flag for Karnataka.

"The Congress does not have a policy for a state having a separate flag".

The present Karnataka flag is not strictly an official or unofficial flag.

In the wake of the Karnataka government demanding a separate flag for the state, Shiv Sena on Tuesday condemned the decision and said, the state government should be suspended for such a demand, and Presidential rule should be imposed in the state.

It is interesting to note that this move by the Congress has come just before the 2018 assembly elections.

The Congress government in Karnataka has set up a nine member committee to design a state flag (an identity symbol unique to the state), according to a report in the media.

Puttappa and Gadada want the Karnataka government to ensure that the flag has legal status, and therefore, had requested that a committee be set up on the issue. It had also told the Karnataka High Court that it had not accepted suggestions to declare the red and yellow Kannada flag as the official state flag. Union minister DV Sada nanda Gowda dismis sed the move, saying, "India is one nation, and it can't have two flags".

Experts HT spoke to, said there was no legal bar on a state flag. "If BJP is opposed to it then can they say openly that they are against a state flag", the Chief Minister said.

The Gokak agitation of the 1980s was successful in giving primacy to the Kannada language in the state which had earlier followed a three-language formula that included Hindi and English. The nation has only one national flag, he said.

"The chief minister said", Is there any provision in the constitution that prohibits a state from having a own flag?" The Constitution of India does not prohibit a state from having its own flag.