Arun Joshi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called the Tiranga rally in Srinagar as “ inspiring,.” Why so.? There is much more than the optics of hundreds of national tricolours , held by the people of all age groups, passing through the Boulevard in Srinagar . This spectacle has been a regular feature in Kashmir since 2022 , the year when the country, got rid of the epidemic of Covid , and allowed the freedom of movement to take place without any social distancing . But for Kashmir, it was a freedom of different kind . The tricolour that was restricted to the government buildings and Raj Bhawan and its unfurling and hoisting during national festivals , has made its way to streets , parks , schools and colleges and villages in the Valley..
Until August 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated and its special status done away with , tricolour had a competitor , so to say ,the state flag of Jammu and Kashmir. The state flag symbolized Kashmir’s assertion for its separate identity within the Indian union . It also symbolized State’s semi-autonomous status , which also had its own constitution and the most powerful legislature in the country . It did not challenge the Indian sovereignty , but it did represent parallel aspirations of the people of the state . The BJP that had been campaigning for one nation , one constitution , found its ministers in the PDP-BJP coalition having two flags on their vehicles . It is not a thing of the too distant past . It was visible throughout the period from March 1, 2015 to June 19, 2019. This was the period during which the PDP-BJP government last with an interruption of three months from January 7 to April 4, 2016 after the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed . His daughter Mehbooba Mufti took a lot of time making up her mind to re-enter into alliance with BJP which her father had started.
India was finding it hard to have the acceptance of tricolour in Kashmir , where school assemblies didn’t have national anthem . It was not a phenomenon born alongside eruption of militancy in Kashmir in late 1989 . The tricolour and national anthem were not in social and political milieu of Kashmir since it adopted its own constitution in 1957. The accession of the state to India did not bring out supremacy and acceptance of trocolour in absolute terms .
During militancy two things happened ; Pakistan sponsored groups targeted everything Indian in the Valley – the first victims were Kashmiri Hindus , better known as Kashmiri Pandits , for they were Indians in flesh and blood , secondly , any symbolism of India was erased . The system had collapsed and there was no effort to revive it because the first task was to neutralize militancy and its mindset that had spread all across the Valley and beyond into parts of Jammu region .
BJP tried to bring symbolism of tricolour into Kashmir – first in January 1992 when then party president Murli Manohar Joshi led Ekta Yatra reached Srinagar , among others Narendra Modi was a leading light in that yatra. The flag hoisting ceremony lasted for less than 17-minutes as rockets swooshed over Lal Chowk where the event was held. It was a ceremony held in haste , but it did deliver a message that the Indians were not accepting what was happening in Kashmir which resonated with guns and grenades . Second time , Tiranga Yatra led by late Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj in 20111 was cut short mid-way . The BJP activists were handed over a consolation of holding an event in Kathua , miles away from Srinagar .
Hoisting tricolour in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk was made into a contest for prestige . More often than not , the state police would not allow the young boys to come and hoist the flag at Ghanta Ghar or Clock Tower in the central square in Srinagar. Because they feared a law and order situation .
That tricolour can fly in Kashmir unchallenged in Kashmir instils an idea of the Indian might in the post-August 5, 2019 era . The optics are conveying a message that the contest is over , the other side has been demolished . These tiranga rallies are symbol of the changed times . It’s a transition . Patriotism is something that bubbles from within , whether these rallies would lead to that is still open to question . At least a beginning has been made and the rest can be sighted on the horizon.
Disclaimer: This is the personal opinion of the author. The views expressed in this write-up have nothing to do with www.prameyanews.com.
