Saffron flag ‘removed’ in Mandya: BJP to intensify protest; conspiracy to create communal tensions, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

“Hoisting the Hanuman flag on a pole meant for the national flag by violating rules and staging a protest against the government is not accidental,” he said in a tweet, sharing the permission letter issued by the Keragodu gram panchayat.

The permission letter dated January 18 says that only the national flag and the state flag can be hoisted on the pole and no religious or political flag will be allowed. “There is no doubt that BJP leaders have hatched a conspiracy to cause communal riots in Mandya as preparation for Lok Sabha polls,” Siddaramaiah said in the tweet.

Leader of Opposition R Ashok, who visited the village on Sunday, said the BJP would intensify the protest over the issue. “We will take out a padayatra and lay siege to the DC office. In the way in which Datta Peeta agitation took place, we will take it up in the same manner,” he said. Datta Peeta refers to a shrine in Chikkamagaluru, which became the centre of a dispute following a communal flare-up in the ’90s.

Ashok alleged that the police had assaulted devotees following a heated exchange of words between them and the latter during the ‘removal’ of the flag. “We along with the JD(S) will take up the fight,” he said, adding that the agitation against the incident will be held across the state.