Udupi witnessed a fresh political flashpoint after the district administration’s participation in the centuries-old Paryaya festival became the center of a Congress–BJP confrontation. The controversy erupted after Udupi Deputy Commissioner Swarupa T.K. was seen holding and raising a Kesari flag to flag off the Paryaya procession, an act the Congress has objected to as a violation of service rules, while the BJP and Hindu organizations have defended it as part of a longstanding Hindu tradition.
As per TV9 Kannada reports, the Udupi District Congress Committee has written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seeking action against the Deputy Commissioner. In its complaint, the Congress argued that a serving IAS officer publicly displaying a religious flag is inappropriate for a government official and amounts to conduct inconsistent with the neutrality expected under service norms. The letter has since gone viral, fueling sharp reactions from Hindu devotees and political groups who say the party is turning a sacred cultural event into a needless controversy.
The incident occurred in the early hours of January 18, when the Paryaya procession moved from Jodukatte to Sri Krishna Matha in Udupi. Before the procession began, BJP MLA Yashpal Suvarna reportedly handed the saffron flag to the deputy commissioner, who then raised it publicly to signal the start of the event. With lakhs of devotees participating in the Paryaya celebrations, visuals of the flag-off moment quickly spread online and sparked a wider debate about the role of officials at religious and cultural festivals, a debate that was further ignited by anti-Hindu Congress officials.
The BJP responded with a fierce counterattack, alleging that the Congress’s complaint reflects an anti-Hindu mindset and a habit of obstructing majority community traditions. In a statement, BJP Karnataka said the Paryaya festival has a long history and that the Deputy Commissioner, acting in an official civic capacity, merely followed an established practice to commence the procession. The party framed the Congress letter as an attempt to criminalize Hindu symbols and to intimidate officials from participating in Hindu public life.
Amid the escalating political storm, Deputy Commissioner Swarupa T.K. issued a clarification, stating that she had participated solely in her official capacity and without any political motive. He said he was discharging civic administration responsibilities during the festival and urged the public to view the episode in that context rather than as a political act. Her explanation, however, did little to calm the argument, as both sides continued to project the event as proof of a larger ideological battle in the state.
The larger controversy has now shifted from one flag to a broader question: why is a centuries-old religious procession being treated as a disciplinary offense? Supporters of the deputy commissioner argue that public administration in Karnataka routinely engages with community festivals of all kinds and that selectively objecting to Hindu symbols creates the impression of unequal standards. They say the outrage is not about service rules but about political signalling that discourages public officials from acknowledging Hindu tradition.
What is wrong with the Congress in Karnataka today is not a lack of power; it is a lack of fairness and appeasement politics. Time and again, anything connected to Hindu tradition is treated as a problem that must be policed, questioned, or punished. In Udupi, a temple town whose identity is inseparable from Sri Krishna Matha and the centuries-old Paryaya tradition, flagging off a procession with a kesari dhwaj is not some new political stunt; it is a cultural marker that devotees recognize as part of the festival’s spirit.
So what exactly is the Deputy Commissioner’s crime here? If an official participates respectfully in a public religious tradition attended by lakhs, that should be seen as civic engagement, not misconduct. By turning a sacred, historic event into a disciplinary complaint, the Congress is once again sending a poisonous message: Hindu faith must be hidden to prove secularism, while other forms of public religious assertion are tolerated or even encouraged. This is not secularism; it is selective outrage, and the people of Karnataka are watching.
With the Congress demanding action, it is a direct attack on Hindu identity; the Paryaya festival has once again been pulled into partisan conflict. As the state debates neutrality and tradition, many devotees insist the real issue is simple: a government should not turn a sacred event attended by lakhs into a political battlefield, and officials should not be threatened with punishment for participating in cultural practices rooted in Karnataka’s traditions.
