Keragodu flag row: Mandya bandh called by Hindutva groups evokes muted response

Mandya bandh over flag incident in Mysuru evokes muted response, with normal life in town unaffected.

The Mandya bandh called by Hindutva organisations over the Keragodu flag incident evoked muted response and life was normal across the town on Friday.

Though normal life was affected in Keragodu village, which is about 20 km away from Mandya, there was no untoward incident as security had been tightened across the region. In Mandya town, shops, hotels, and other business establishments remained open and autorickshaw unions and local traders had opposed the bandh call.

Hindutva activists took out a bike rally from Keragodu to Mandya town and about 300 people took part in it. From the Anjaneya temple, the activists marched to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and sat on a dharna.

The activists said if permission to hoist the saffron flag with Hanuman’s image was not issued, they would rework their strategy and action plan and vowed to fly the flag at the same flagpole in the days ahead.

The BJP, along with the JD(S), had called for a Mandya bandh in protest against the lowering of the saffron flag from a 108-foot tall flagpole in Keragodu and replacing it with the national tricolour. However, several local organisations, had not extended support. Eventually, both the two Opposition parties backed out of the Mandya bandh call.

The entry of JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who joined the padayatra in Mandya town — a day after the controversy broke out — and wore a saffron shawl, queered the pitch as the JD(S), which has strong roots in the district, backed the agitation to the hilt in the initial days.

But with the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda scoffing at the developments, the party leaders and workers backed off and only offered “moral support”. The BJP on its part found itself caught between religious sentiments associated with the saffron flag and nationalism represented by the tricolour and did not want to be seen opposing either of them and backtracked.