Daijiworld Media Network 
With PTI Inputs

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI): The Centre today made it clear there is no provision in the Constitution for a separate flag for any state and the tricolour is the only flag for India.

This comes after the Karnataka government initiated a move for a separate flag for the state with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defending the step after it came under attack from rival parties.

"We are one nation, one flag. Legally there is no provision either for providing or prohibiting a separate flag for any state," a home ministry spokesperson said.

Home ministry officials said Karnataka already has a flag which represents only the "people and not the government".

That flag is not used in national ceremonies like Republic Day or Independence Day but on occasions like state foundation day, an official said.

But the use of that flag was also challenged in courts by some people and a decision on the matter is yet to be taken, the official, who wished not to be quoted, said.

A nine-member committee has been formed by Karnataka's Congress government and tasked with submitting a report on designing the separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it.

If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370 of theConstitution.

Congress high command seeks clarification from CM Siddaramaiah

While the Karnataka government is being blamed for flaring up a separatist mindset by constituting a committee to design a separate state flag, the Congress high command has directed the Chief Minister to come up with a clarification.

This move is being seen as a political gambit by the Congress government ahead of assembly polls next year and the party seniors seem “unhappy” with the controversy and intend to end it.

"The Congress does not have a policy for a state having a separate flag. I have asked the government to clarify the issue. The country has only one flag and that is the national flag,” said AICC General Secretary in-charge K C Venugopal to Deccan Herald.

Even Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chaudhury stressed that India should have only the national flag and is unable to understand why Karnataka government is keen to have a state flag.

The State government’s move to have a separate flag comes in the backdrop of rising public sentiments against BJP's Hindutva agenda and the Centre’s alleged move to impose Hindi on the Kannada-speaking people of the state.

Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa and social worker Bheemappa Gundappa Gadada had made representations to the state government for a separate flag alleging that disrespect is shown to Karnataka by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, which has called for the Belagavi district to be integrated into Maharashtra.

Though Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has defended his government's move on the grounds that constitution does not bar states from having its own flag, it is interesting to note that the Congress had opposed a similar move when proposed by BJP.

In 2012, when BJP government was ruling in Karnataka, and proposed to make Karnataka’s unofficial red and yellow flag official, the Congress had moved to the High Court saying that separate flag would be “against the unity and integrity of the country.”