Nothing wrong in states having its own flag: Shashi Tharoor

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said there is nothing wrong in a state having its own flag and argued that the regional identity of a state would never come in the way of the nation's integration.

Tharoor, however, said his observations on the flag issue that has kicked up a row in Karnataka politics, were personal and his party hadn't yet taken an official stand on the matter. "I see no problem in a state having its own flag as long as the rules are complied with. Having a state flag is not anti-national as some people are trying to project it," he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference organized by the state government at Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) campus, University of Agricultural Sciences.

Tharoor, who took part in a keynote discussion, affirmed both at the session and later at a press conference that the idea of India is one that celebrates pluralism and that divisive ideology has no place in society that's known for its diversity. Referring to the growing resentment against imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi states, he said the Centre is trying to impose an idea that Hindi is the language of the majority , but it's a wrong notion.

"A Hindi-speaking person in Uttar Pradesh can cherish an idea that he represents the majority, but in reality he doesn't. In India, there are 23 scheduled languages and 22,000 dialects. India is a country where the linguistic minorities are the majority," he said, adding that even Hindu religion doesn't represent the majority because of the caste system.

"As far as Hindi is concerned, Bollywood has brought that language to our TV sets and its relevance ends at that.When it comes to official communication, governments must deal with people in their own languages. If they adopt Hindi, then they can speak to a Sharma but can never speak to a Subramanyam or a Siddaramaiah," he added, indicating there are no takers for Hindi in southern states.While stating that the Centre should never impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states, Tharoor averred that English, as a common language, is use ful to a certain extent, but Hindi can never become the common language of India.

Responding to a query about the BJP government's motto of `one-nation-one-culture' in the context of the flag controversy , he said: "India is already a `one-nation-two-flag' country, with Jammu and Kashmir having its own flag.Every state should be allowed to design its own flag and there should be no objection to that, provided the state flag is subordinate to the national flag."