Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa stated on Wednesday that the saffron flag (Bhagwa dwaja) could replace the tricolour at red fort in the distant future.
Responding to questions by reporters on the controversy of saffron flag being hoisted from a flagpost in Shivamogga, he suggested that saffron flag could become the national flag “may be a hundred or five hundred years from now.” He said that, after all, it was the saffron flag that fluttered on the chariots of Rama and Hanumantha.
He was, however, quick to qualify that the tricolour was the national flag as of now and anyone who did not respect it was a “traitor”.