Keragodu flag post issue: Kumaraswamy claims documents have been created, Rural Development Minister Priyanka Kharge refutes

Former Chief Minister accuses State Government of creating false documents for flag post permission, Government denies allegations.

 The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on January 30 accused the State Government of creating documents pertaining to permission given to the erection of flag post by the Keragodu Gram Panchayat in Mandya district even as the Government rejected the accusations.

“The first application for the flag post was made in November 2023 in which the Sri Gowrishankar Seva Trust did not mention the reason. Where is it now? The December 29, 2023 decision was taken based on another application that is dated the same day, but the date has been changed. The conditions in approval letters were changed twice,” he told presspersons in Bengaluru. He said that multiple applications from various organisations to have bust of Kempegowda and Kuvempu came after the December 29 application.

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Mr. Kumaraswamy said that the problem in the village arose after the local Congress legislator Ravi Ganiga’s name was not included in the inauguration of the flag post. “While the saffron flag was allowed to fly between January 20 and January 25, the villagers hoisted national flag on January 26. What were the tahsildar and assistant commissioner who visited the village doing between January 20 and January 25?” He also sought to know the reason for the suspension of the gram panchayat PDO late on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyanka Kharge said that there was no basis for the allegations. “How can you forge hand written application of the trust that is in its letter head? How can signatures of eight persons be forged? How can the proceedings of the gram panchayat that is in Kannada be forged?” he asked. The permission for the trust was based on the goodwill and undertaking that the national flag will be hoisted, he said. “The flag post was chained and locked by those involved. A gas cutter had to be used to cut the chain to access the flag post.”  

The Minister said that the PDO might have erred on the issue, and that he should have taken the permission of the higher ups before deciding on the flag post issue. “But what is Mr. Kumaraswamy fighting for?