{"id":31421,"date":"2018-10-27T13:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=31421"},"modified":"2018-10-27T13:30:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T08:00:04","slug":"should-states-have-their-own-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/should-states-have-their-own-flags\/","title":{"rendered":"Should States have their own flags?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/should-states-have-their-own-flags\/article22697051.ece\"><b>Should States have their own flags?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The committee constituted in Karnataka to design a flag for the State is said to have finalised a design.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What is the issue?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government in Karnataka constituted a nine-member committee to design a state flag and look into the legalities of it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Committee is said to have finalised the design<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The flag is reportedly a tricolour, modifying the popular yellow and red one seen in the State.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Flag in Karnataka:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karnataka has had an unofficial flag since the mid 1960s.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The red and yellow flag was created by Kannada writer and activist Ma Ramamurthy for a pro-Kannada political party called the Kannada Paksha.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For years, there has been a demand to recognise it as the state&#8217;s official flag.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Legal sanctity:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The existing legal provisions do not prohibit states from having their own flags<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the Constitution, a flag is not enumerated in the Seventh Schedule. However, <\/span><b>Article 51A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ordains that every citizen shall abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the national flag, and the national anthem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no other provision regulating hoisting of flags, either by the States or by the public.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Parliament has framed legislations regulating the hoisting of the national flag: <\/span><b>Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the 1950 Act the statutory prohibition is only against \u201cuse 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\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1971 Act prohibits<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">insulting the national flag by burning it, mutilating it, defacing it, etc. However, there is no prohibition against any State hoisting its own flag<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, <\/span><b>the Flag Code of India, 2002<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> does not impose prohibitions on a State flag. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, the Code provides space for a State flag as long as it does not offend the dignity and honour of the national flag<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the problem?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only state so far to have a separate official flag is Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys special status under the Indian constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Karnataka government&#8217;s decision to form a committee to look into the demand is a departure from the stand taken by the state&#8217;s earlier BJP government.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The earlier BJP government in Karnataka had argued that having a separate flag would be &#8220;against the unity and integrity of the country&#8221;.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Opinion in Favour of states having their own flags:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having a separate flag is not going to be a hurdle to national integration.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A separate flag for each State would strengthen the federal structure and serve as a symbol for a much more specific identity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karnataka is justified and constitutionally empowered to adopt its own flag to uphold the pride of the State without infringing the law. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Examples from other countries:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most countries around the world that follow a federal system allow regional flags.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the 50 States in the U.S. have separate and distinct flags, apart from the national flag.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/should-states-have-their-own-flags\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Should States have their own flags?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}