Why BJP silent over Karnataka flag issue: Uddhav

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday questioned the silence of the BJP on the issue of the move of the Karnataka government’s to have its own state flag.

“States like Karnataka are demanding their own flags…leave the Congress, but what about the BJP,” Thackeray said in an interview to Marathi mouthpiece, Saamana, and its Marathi tabloid version, Dophar ka Samaana, on the eve of his 57th birthday on 27 July.

“First lower the flag of Jammu & Kashmir (that has a separate flag of its own) …how long this unfortunate politics would go on,” he said in the interview.

This is the second time in nearly a week’s time that the Shiv Sena had targeted the BJP and the Congress on this issue.

On 20 July, in an editorial published in the Sena organs, it demanded that the Narendra Modi-led Centre should dissolve the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka or stop all assistance to it. Besides, the Shiv Sena also dared Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son and party’s Vice President Rahul Gandhi to remove Siddaramaiah from the post of the Chief Minister.

“…tomorrow rulers of Karnataka would demand a separate Constitution and separate armed forces…while the the country is faced with the vexed issue of the  special status accorded to Jammu & Kashmir, the Congress has back-stabbed the nation with such a move..,” the editorial had said.