Satyagraha to be launched in K'taka against Centre's order on manufacturing of tricolour

Bengaluru, July 11 (IANS) Theatre director, playwright and Swadeshi movement activist Prasanna Heggodu has announced a Satyagraha against the Union government's decision 'violating' the existing rules on the national flag.

Talking to IANS, Prasanna Heggodu stated that the Satyagraha against the policy of the Union government will be launched on July 30.

"The Satyagraha will be based on the idea of non-violence. Eminent personalities like Rajagopal and Babu Bhai Thakkar, a 93-year-old Gandhian from Mumbai, and many others are participating in it," he said.

As per the policy on the national flag formulated in 2002, the tricolor flag should be hand woven. It also specifies that the threads used in flag, whether it is cotton, silk or jute, should be woven with bare hands.

However, the Union Home Ministry has recently passed an order permitting manufacturing of national flags in machines. Till date, only the Khadi Gramodyoga Federation at Bengeri in Hubballi was permitted to produce and sell quality national flags in the country.

The order has been passed in the backdrop of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' programme in which a call is being given to hoist tricolor on every household in the country as part of the celebrations of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.

The activist claimed that due to this decision, more than 1,500 workers who were entirely dependent on weaving the national flag all these years would be facing the threat of extinction.

"We never thought the BJP, which championed the cause of 'Swadeshi movement' and 'Make in India', would spell doom for us," the workers said.

Prasanna Heggodu said that 'Har Ghar Tiranga' is a good project but, but the BJP has defeated its biggest slogan of 'Make in India' by allowing foreign participation.

"In Hubballi, presently thousands of meters of flags are piled up as they have not been sold in the backdrop of the Covid pandemic. The situation is the same in other Khadi centres, including the one in Bengaluru. As a result of this, spinners are not getting work. The Chitradurga unit which processed cotton has been closed down. The decision of the Union Home Ministry will have terrible consequences," he said.

The Union government has not amended the policy but given directions in this regard. The order of the Central government in this regard is not available in public domain. Officers claim that the orders are given orally. There is ambiguity in this regard, Prasanna Heggodu said.

"We have already started agitation against the decision. The movement will start slowly but it will gain momentum soon. Mill made, machine made flags will kill jobs. The new machine from Italy is fully automated and everything could be done at a push of a button," he stated.