Amid high drama, the police failed to remove a pole with Kannada flag that was erected by Kannada activists without due clearance from the government in front of the city corporation building in Belagavi on Monday.
Efforts by the police to remove the pole failed with the activists offering resistance. The police took some activists into custody but another group arrived on the spot and continued a dharna. They were demanding that district in-charge Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi come to the spot and unfurl the flag on Tuesday morning.
Earlier, the activists erected the pole outside the corporation office, next to the office of the Inspector-General of Police. They hoisted the Kannada flag and sang the national anthem.
They raised slogans in favour of Kannada and Karnataka. They felicitated Kasturi Bavi, a Kannada activist who had vowed not to wear footwear till the Kannada flag was hoisted on the corporation office premises. Activist Srinivas Talukar and Basavaraj Doddi had brought along with them a pair of white slippers for the activist. She wore them on the spot and announced that Kannada groups had been able to do what successive governments had failed to do — hoist the Kannada flag on the corporation office premises.
Ms. Bavi told journalists that councillors had opposed attempts to hoist the Kannada flag since long. She also said that the State government had shifted the corporation office to its new premises from Khade Bazaar only because Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti members did not allow the Kannada flag to fly over the old building.
When the police tried to foil their attempt to install the pole, a team of Kannada Rakshana Vedike activists had a verbal spat with them. The police tried to reason with the activists stating that they were welcome to put up a flag post after due permission from the Urban Development Department and the district administration. But the activists were in no mood to listen to the police.
Lakshmi Hebbalkar, MLA, described the police action as unwarranted as she felt there was no law that the Kannada flag should not be unfurled in Karnataka.
