New Delhi: The Congress has said that the party will unfurl the national flag at its headquarters in Srinagar and not at Lal Chowk on January 30, the concluding day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. journeyIn its final leg, it entered Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Rajni Patil made this announcement. said tuesday Hoisting the National Flag at Lal Chowk is a part of the “Agenda of the RSS”.
“We do not believe in the agenda of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) to hoist the tricolor at Lal Chowk, where it has already been hoisted,” he said. Flag hoisting place – Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) is headquartered on Maulana Azad Road, less than a kilometer from Lal Chowk.
Lal Chowk is the main square of Srinagar. Located in the heart of the city, it is surrounded by parks, schools and media offices. On normal days, Lal Chowk is buzzing with activity, but sometimes there are barbed wire in and around it.
And while the RSS, the BJP’s ideological arm, has not spoken of an “agenda” for the flag-hoisting at Lal Chowk, its cadres – who hold prominent positions in the BJP – have made the act a symbol of nationalism.
Earlier this month, the party’s Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu did Told That journey It will end with flag hoisting at Lal Chowk. “Rahul Gandhi started journey from Kanyakumari and will hoist the flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on 30 January.
The stand of the Congress against hoisting the flag at Lal Chowk is curious, given that it was Rahul Gandhigreat grandfather of Jawaharlal Nehru Who, with Sheikh Abdullah Was first of all Tricolor hoisted at Lal Chowk in 1948, Thereafter, at a rally in the presence of Nehru, the Kashmiri leader recited persian couplets,Tu man shudam, man tu shudi, taks na goyed, man degram, tu degari(I became you and you became me, no one can say we are different’).
Speaking to ThePrint on Thursday, Patil tried to play down his remarks. ,Pandit Nehru hoisted the national flag. (But) Murli Manohar Joshi (of the BJP) hoisted the national flag at Lal Chowk before the 1990s. Then Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley came but they were stopped. The national flag can be hoisted anywhere. I meant to say that when our office is in Lal Chowk then why do we need to go there separately?” he said.
“We have to keep an eye on the national flag. How will we do this in Lal Chowk? Why should we go into RSS agenda like Lal Chowk and Article 370? We have come with the message of peace.
The BJP says that hoisting the national flag at Lal Chowk is in itself a statement “in favor of nationalist forces”. Speaking to ThePrint, BJP spokesperson Sunil Sethi said, “It is a matter of pride for Indians to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk, the epicenter of separatism. It was they (Congress) who created such a situation for their political gains in the last 70 years, giving a free hand to separatists and anti-nationals in Lal Chowk and such nerve centers of Kashmir. This is not just the agenda of the RSS but of all Indians.
History of Lal Chowk
Ever since India got independence, Lal Chowk Many political events have been hosted here.
Lal Chowk was named by whom BPL Bedi – Father of actor Kabir Bedi and confidante of Sheikh Abdullah – in the 1940s. Inspired by the Russian Revolution, he named it after Moscow’s Red Square.
In 1980, Bajaj Electricals built a clock tower on the square, which has become a center of political activity over the years. When Sheikh Abdullah signed the Indira-Sheikh Accord with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 – which allowed him to re-enter politics and become the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir – it was at Lal Chowk that he addressed a huge crowd. addressed and explained the agreement.
At the height of militancy in the 1990s, Lal Chowk was a witness For bomb attacks, firing, rocket attacks. In those dark days, a Pakistani flag could even be seen at Lal Chowk on some days, and rallies by extremists and separatists were also not uncommon.
Tricolor trips over the past few years
At the peak of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in 1992, the then BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi with Narendra Modi, who belonged to the party journey coordinator at the time airedEd National flag marking on 26 January at Lal Chowk Successful completion of party’s Ekta Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
With the issuance of warnings against terroristsI journeyIt had to be stopped in Jammu due to the participation of thousands of workers. Joshi, Modi and some others were reportedly airlifted to Srinagar. ,Excuse, Landslide incidents on Jammu-Srinagar highway.
In 2011, another journeyThis time it was launched by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) from Kolkata. Under the leadership of Anurag Thakur, the then youth wing president of the party, the traveled The final destination was Lal Chowk. senior Leaders including Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar tried to enter J&K attend journey But arrested for violating section 144 (prohibiting assembly of four or more people) of the Code of Criminal Procedure which was in force at that time.
While Jaitley then reiterated that he would unfurl the national flag at Lal Chowk during the yatra. fail to reach your destination. At the time of her arrest, Swaraj had said, “Why are we being arrested? We were marching peacefully. Security is being provided to those who burn the national flag while those carrying it are being stopped.”
Before that though, a lesser known local leader, Yogesh Gupta The All India Shiv Sena claims to have hoisted the national flag at Lal Chowk for five consecutive years since 1994.
According to Gupta, he along with a few others had to pass through security forces to hoist the national flag on January 26, 1994, when he was initially detained in Udhampur.
Similar efforts to reach Srinagar on Tricolor tripsNot unheard of. In 2016, over a hundred bike-borne youths were stopped by the police in Lakhanpur when they were trying to enter the state to hoist the national flag. National Institute of Technology (NIT)Srinagar.
Group – Raising slogans of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”Kashmir is ours where sacrifices were made, Mukherjee(The Kashmir in which Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was martyred is ours) — At that time Bhagat Singh was under the leadership of Kranti Dal leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga. Bagga is the national secretary of the BJYM and leader of the Delhi BJP.
A year later in 2017, around a hundred people from Sonipat were stopped at Samba in Jammu for the purpose of hoisting the national flag at Lal Chowk. their Tiranga Yatra Wasn’t even allowed to go ahead.
The most recent political flag-hoisting event was held at Lal Chowk last year amid tight security led by BJYM national president Tejashwi Surya. To mark the Kargil Vijay Diwas, bikers from across the country took out the Tiranga Bikers Yatra from Lal Chowk to Kargil.
“In 1992, Shri Narendra Modi ji hoisted the National Flag at Lal Chowk during the ‘Ekta Yatra’ led by Shri Murli Manohar Joshi. After 30 years, thanks to the abrogation of Article 370 by Modi ji and HM Shri Amit Shah ji, BJYM hoisted the Tricolor at Lal Chowk today. Surya wrote After flag hoisting in 2022.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)