Should States have their own flags?

Should States have their own flags?

Context:

The committee constituted in Karnataka to design a flag for the State is said to have finalised a design.

What is the issue?

• The government in Karnataka constituted a nine-member committee to design a state flag and look into the legalities of it.
• The Committee is said to have finalised the design
• The flag is reportedly a tricolour, modifying the popular yellow and red one seen in the State.

Flag in Karnataka:

• Karnataka has had an unofficial flag since the mid 1960s.
• The red and yellow flag was created by Kannada writer and activist Ma Ramamurthy for a pro-Kannada political party called the Kannada Paksha.
• For years, there has been a demand to recognise it as the state’s official flag.

Legal sanctity:

• The existing legal provisions do not prohibit states from having their own flags
• Under the Constitution, a flag is not enumerated in the Seventh Schedule. However, Article 51A ordains that every citizen shall abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the national flag, and the national anthem.
• There is no other provision regulating hoisting of flags, either by the States or by the public.
• The Parliament has framed legislations regulating the hoisting of the national flag: Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
• Under the 1950 Act the statutory prohibition is only against “use for any trade, business, calling or profession, or in the title of any patent, or in any trademark of design, any name or emblem specified in the Schedule”.
• The 1971 Act prohibits insulting the national flag by burning it, mutilating it, defacing it, etc. However, there is no prohibition against any State hoisting its own flag
• Also, the Flag Code of India, 2002 does not impose prohibitions on a State flag.
• Further, the Code provides space for a State flag as long as it does not offend the dignity and honour of the national flag

What is the problem?

• The only state so far to have a separate official flag is Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys special status under the Indian constitution.
• The Karnataka government’s decision to form a committee to look into the demand is a departure from the stand taken by the state’s earlier BJP government.
• The earlier BJP government in Karnataka had argued that having a separate flag would be “against the unity and integrity of the country”.

Opinion in Favour of states having their own flags:

• Having a separate flag is not going to be a hurdle to national integration.
•  A separate flag for each State would strengthen the federal structure and serve as a symbol for a much more specific identity.
• Karnataka is justified and constitutionally empowered to adopt its own flag to uphold the pride of the State without infringing the law.

Examples from other countries:

•  Most countries around the world that follow a federal system allow regional flags.
• All the 50 States in the U.S. have separate and distinct flags, apart from the national flag.
• In the U.K., the political units of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have their own flags without offending or affecting the integrity of the U.K.