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:

Kerala: RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat unfurled the national flag in Palakkad school pic.twitter.com/vDK8xn9V20 — ANI (@ANI) August 15, 2017

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This episode caused a lot of controversy online and here are a few reactions by the people:

After 70 years of freedom, shame if we still need civil disobedience to hoist the national flag #IndependenceDayIndia #MohanBhagwat #Kerala — Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) August 15, 2017

Salute to School Administration,Palakkad, conviction they defied Collector’s instruction not allowing #MohanBhagwat ji to hoist Tri Colour — Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) August 15, 2017

Of course If this had happened wt the left leaning social service org in a bjp led state, the new media elites wud hv been frothing at mouth https://t.co/KidTB2m2gF — mayurwrites (@freentglty) August 15, 2017

Republic of Kerala going strong.. What’s happening in Republic of Bengal ? #IndependenceDayIndia https://t.co/Qf0NkiymIf — Paresh Rawal Fan (@Babu_Bhaiyaa) August 15, 2017

Communists are claiming that this act of hoisting the national flag a ‘deliberate attempt to stir controversy’.