The Kerala Government on Tuesday issued a circular for Republic Day celebrations in the state. A detailed procedure on how to celebrate Republic Day has been included in it. The circular makes clear that flag hoisting in all public offices, schools and colleges should be done by the head of departments. The time of hoisting has been fixed as only after the Governor has unfurled first at 8.30 am.
This appears to be a politically motivated move. Mohan Bhagwat, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, is supposed to hoist the national flag at a management school in Palakkad district. With such a circular he has no official consent to do it. Bhagwat will be in Kerala to attend a three-day RSS camp being held in a school near Palakkad from January 26.
The BJP and the RSS have accused the state chief minister of demeaning and killing the spirit of democracy and reducing Republic Day to a party affair. The Chief Minister’s Office, however, has a different stand on this move. According to them the central rules and regulations form the basis of such circulars in state. The general administration department issues these. They say that it has always been in place and routinely issued in the past.
Fearing the confrontation comeback in 2017, the government seems to have been quick in making its own arrangements. On August 15 last year, Bhagwat raised the Tricolour at a government-aided school, 6 km from Palakkad. This came as defiance to the restraining order by the District Collector. A restraining order has not been issued this time but the RSS chief is out in a Sangh-controlled school.
BJP’s Palakkad unit secretary E Krishnadas said, “The state’s directive is not binding on the school as it does not come under the state. The Vyasa Vidya Peethom is a private school and follows CBSE curriculum.” Another senior member of the Sangh said “The sarsanghchalakji (RSS chief) always hoists the national flag on Independence Day and Republic Day wherever he is on these days. Since on January 26 he will be in Kerala, he will host the flag there. It should only be seen in this light.” BJP national spokesperson G.V.L. Narsimha Rao reacted by saying “Fascist regime of CPI(M) led chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala has been killing our cadres brutally and is now killing the democratic spirit.”
The RSS-BJP duo and the CPI (M) have always had a history of quarrelsome disagreement in the past. Things escalated after the Left Democratic Front came to power in the state last year. Unending allegations of political killings have surfaced since then where RSS-BJP and CPI (M) workers lost lives in violence.