Karnataka's flag: Is Siddaramaiah an 'anti-national' or a just shrewd politician?

Siddaramaiah has been labelled the latest "anti-national'' in town. Why? Because he wants a flag for Karnataka.

Or let me put it this way. He wants to give official status to the unofficial red and yellow Karnataka flag that has existed since the mid-60s. As a first step, a committee has been formed to consider the proposal. Enough for many outside Karnataka to label him a secessionist.

What is this flag that we are talking about. You would have seen the flag during both Karnataka Rajyotsav, the state formation day celebrations on November 1 as well as during agitations when Kannada groups display it prominently. On occasions, buses, autorickshaws and private vehicles sport it. The colours represent vermillion and turmeric. Just like the official state anthem written in Kannada, Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate, or the state bird the Indian roller, the flag is also part of the Kannada identity. It has featured in several Kannada movies as well, the most famous being Aakasmika starring matinee idol Rajkumar, where he waves the flag in a song admiring the state of Karnataka and its culture.

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During troubled times like the one that broke out over Cauvery in September last year, the flag also protects. It is not a joke that every IT company in Silicon Valley Bengaluru has several metres of this flag. So do smaller establishments because it is an insurance policy against fringe groups that may otherwise target you for being Tamilian. So even a Murugan Stores will put up the flag to announce his allegiance to a Kannada identity.

So how does a flag that otherwise symbolises the pride, the identity, the culture of a state formed on linguistic basis become anti-national? At no stage, is anyone suggesting that this flag will replace the tricolour or will be flown in a manner that disrespects the national flag. Is the fabric of India as a nation, as a Republic of over 1.3 billion people so weak that it will feel threatened by a state flag?

The suggestion that anyone in Karnataka who speaks in favour of a Kannada flag, is of suspect patriotism, is preposterous. All of us are patriotic and have bought into the One Nation and even one tax concept after GST and hardly need these self-styled patriotism desks that are set up to dispense certificates. This either-or nonsense has to stop.

Of late, India has seen a debate that seems to suggest that if India is one nation, it should give primary importance to one language, which is Hindi. This has seen protests in both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, that have emphasised on the need to respect local languages and take pride in them.

Siddaramaiah's move is to say that diversity is not necessarily a bad thing. That this homogeneity that many seek is not necessarily superior to a heterogenous template. 

Let us not even get into how every state in the United States of America has its own flag. As Bengaluru-based brand consultant Harish Bijoor tweeted, the debate on the Karnataka flag is not about narrow regionalism but about broadminded federalism. It is not about nationalism but about federalism. After all, haven't we all studied that there is unity in diversity. Why should all of us be now cut of the same cloth?

The argument being put forth is that the only state that has a separate flag is Jammu and Kashmir and it is being obliquely suggested that it is one of the reasons that has contributed to the divisive situation on the ground in the border state. Again that is to look at the complex Kashmir issue in a very narrow sense.

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This is not to say that Siddaramaiah had no political motive in thinking of this one. Of course, he has. It is to push the BJP to a position where it will have to decide between its political interests in Karnataka and what its national leadership says.

Siddaramaiah's high command has not taken kindly to the move because it too sees India from the prism of Delhi but the CM couldn't care less. In an election year, the CM obviously thinks wearing his Kannada identity on his sleeve is a good slogan to go to the voters with, appealing at an emotional level. The jury is out on whether Bengalureans and voters in other parts of Karnataka will forget that their water woes, potholed roads, power woes have been giftwrapped in the Karnataka flag and vote Siddaramaiah in a second time.