A day after the government unveiled a State flag and decided to send the proposal to the Centre for approval, Kannada Okkoota (a federation of Kannada organisations led by Vatal Nagaraj) opposed the tricolour flag with yellow, white and red, with the State emblem in the middle.
Speaking at a press meet here, he questioned the government on the need to decide the State flag in a hurry and accused the Congress of “politicising the flag issue”. He said the committee set up to look at the flag issue should have invited opinions.
Arguing that those who had approved the new design has “no sense of history”, Mr. Vatal said leaders of Kannada organisations would meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and hand over a design with a memorandum to make it the State flag.
He said there was no question of agreeing to the new design decided by the government. “The two-colour flag, which has been the flag of Kannada movement for decades should be the official flag at any cost,” he said.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had on Thursday said that the yellow-and-red flag could not be accepted since it was the official flag of Kannada Paksha. Mr. Vatal agreed, but said it could have been slightly modified by introducing the outline of the map of Karnataka and Bhuvaneshwari.
