RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat who is currently on a two day visit to the state of Kerala was invited by a school run by RSS supporters to be the Chief Guest on the occasion of India’s 71st Independence Day. It was also stated that Bhagwat would be the one unfurling the National Flag at the event which was about to start at 9:00 AM.
The Karnaki Amman Higher Secondary school in the Palakkad district of Kerala is incidentally an aided school and the District Collector P Marykutty wasn’t very receptive of the idea of Bhagwat unfurling the flag. The Collector stated that it was not proper for a political leader to hoist the flag in a government aided school and stated that either the head teacher or the student representative should do it.
The Collector then issued a notice in this regard to the school management, teachers and the district superintendent of the police today morning. This order was naturally opposed by the RSS, which claimed that according to the Flag code, anyone could hoist the national flag on the Independence day.
The decision was then challenged by the BJP and later details emerged that Bhagwat had decided to outright defy the order and hoist the flag:
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/897320490334797824
This episode caused a lot of controversy online and here are a few reactions by the people:
https://twitter.com/abhijitmajumder/status/897339535339667456
https://twitter.com/RakeshSinha01/status/897325141717209090
https://twitter.com/freentglty/status/897303062699663360
https://twitter.com/Babu_Bhaiyaa/status/897311511948832768
Communists are claiming that this act of hoisting the national flag a ‘deliberate attempt to stir controversy’.