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Malik to BJP: Will see who hoists Lal Chowk flag

Dangerous politics

Barkha Dutt,

I am NOT a nomadic citizen of a mobile republic. Nor do I believe that the Nation-State is a fossilised concept that has been rendered irrelevant by the new ‘global village’. As a long-standing admirer and lover of the fauj, I believe that the Indian military is one of our most inspiring


institutions and the Indian Soldier our most unsung hero. I’m also a bit embarrassed to admit that the strains of the national anthem always trigger tears — tears of pride, nostalgia, and an intangible, but deeply sentimental sense of belonging.
I love my flag, my anthem and my country.

To me, the most dangerous caricature of the argument around the BJP’s Tiranga Yatra to Jammu and Kashmir is to position it as some sort of choice between patriotism and treason. The sudden determination to hoist the tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on Republic Day also creates a false impression that the Indian flag is not unfurled in the Valley, as it is everywhere else in the country.

Not true. Srinagar’s Bakshi stadium plays host to the Republic Day parade every year, as it will this time. Multiple other venues in the city will also see the tiranga fly high.

So, while the Ekta Yatra seeks its legitimacy in the cover of ‘nationalism’, in fact, it is a patently dangerous and destructive political approach that will only tamper with an already-fragile peace in the state. If Jammu and Kashmir erupts into unrest and violent regional conflict as a result of this yatra, won’t that be the very opposite of national interest?

January 26 is in any case a sensitive time; a day when the entire state machinery is on guard for any possible militant strike. Does the BJP really want to multiply the headaches for an already over-burdened security personnel?

Indeed, coming from the BJP the decision is especially ironic. It was after all Atal Bihari Vajpayee who first laid the foundation stone for a real dialogue process within the state. I remember how he even took his aides at Srinagar’s Amar Singh Club by surprise when he declared with quintessential poetic flourish that he was ready to do whatever was possible within the bounds of humanity (the famous “insaniyat ke dayre mein” speech) to bring peace to the state. It was the BJP that first began formal talks with the separatist Hurriyat Conference. And it was under the BJP that the government had its first and only round of negotiations with the state’s largest indigenous militant group, the Hizbul Mujahideen.

When the BJP was in power it was willing to make so many imaginative interventions in the state. No such ‘flag-march’ was ever contemplated in all the years of NDA rule. Now, in Opposition, why does it suddenly want to use cynical politics to force a kind of manufactured nationalism?

Even today, leaders like Arun Jaitley have a very evolved understanding of the state’s politics. Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were both part of an all-party panel that reached out to the people of the state during its violent summer last year. The fact that India’s politicians were able to unite in that moment of crisis and make a united, human intervention was one of the prouder moments of our democracy.

Why would the BJP want to reverse its own contributions to the state’s peace process? The decision also seems to mark a return to an old form of ‘yatra rajneeti’ which is utterly perplexing at a time when the party has so successfully put the government on the defensive on non-performance, corruption and inflation. Whether it’s the successful Vibrant Gujarat summit or the recent victories in Bihar, the writing on the wall is clear. There is space for a Neo-Right party that is driven by smart economics, effective governance and yes, a robust, but modern and humane nationalism. This yatra, unfortunately casts the BJP in a tired, old, stereotypical mould.

What’s especially tragic is the timing. The state had begun to emerge from the shadow of a terribly volatile period. For the first time, separatists admitted that key political assassinations were not the work of the army or the police, but men “within their own ranks.” Downtown Srinagar which witnessed the worst incidents of stone-pelting last year, now saw labyrinthine queues at a police recruitment camp. The government’s interlocutors were finalising their recommendations amidst the promise of a 25% troop reduction of paramilitary forces. And the Supreme Court was rightly focusing on the suffering and repatriation of Kashmiri Pandits.

At this time to do anything that could inflame emotions and provoke violence is hugely irresponsible. To do so, in the name of nationalism, is not just dangerous; it is frankly, sad. This isn’t just the skepticism and disappointment of so-called bleeding heart liberals. Ask the former Army Chief General VP Malik who was at the helm when the Kargil war was fought and won in 1999. He is blunt in his belief that the BJP must call off the yatra. Or ask B Raman, the former Research and Analysis Wing official who writes that the party must “conduct itself with a sense of wisdom and responsibility”.

The BJP promises that the yatra will be peaceful. But, history is littered with examples of crowds that have a violent mind of their own. The prospect of clashes between the yatris and the security forces; or between different communities is all too worryingly real. India cannot afford to take the risk.

Omar Abdullah has made multiple appeals to the BJP to suspend its plan. He is absolutely right in saying that his administration has no option but to stop the yatra, just as it must stop the separatists from proceeding with a counter-yatra to the heart of the city. Srinagar’s Lal Chowk cannot and must not become a pitched and bloody battleground on January 26. That was never the dream of the Republic.

Barkha Dutt is Group Editor, English News, NDTV n barkha@ndtv.com The views expressed by the author are personal
 
Janab aap ko padhna hai to padho.Maine majboor to nahi kiya na.ki aap zabardasti padho.

Its too many... to finish reading, it will be around the late evening.. so go slow on it ...one at a time.. so that readers can read and respond... :cool:


Also post in english..
 
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We must learn to trust the Indian Muslim instead of assuming he will be influenced by events and thought processes or ideologies in Pakistan. In so doing we challenge his intelligence and doubt his loyalties. In Pakistan they demanded the funeral of Taseer be boycotted because he was a liberal, in India the Indian Muslim leaders refused to allow the killers of Mumbai 26/11 be buried on Indian soil because they were terrorists. That is the difference between them and us.
 
BJP rallies 50,000 youth to arrive in Jammu for flag hoisting

BJP on Saturday claimed more than 50,000 youths will arrive in Jammu to proceed with the 'Rashtriya Ekta Yatra', which will culminate on Republic Day after hoisting of the tricolour at Srinagar's Lal Chowk. "More than 50,000 youth of the country are reaching Jammu on January 25 and would proceed


to Kashmir to hoist the tricolour in the Valley and no force on earth can stop us from doing so," state BJP President Shamsher Singh Manhas told reporters in Jammu on Saturday.
"Any misadventure envisaged by the state government would be thwarted and state BJP would see that tricolour unfurls at Lal Chowk," he said.

He also accused Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is opposing the BJP's plan, of having "strong separatist leaning". His views were supported by national executive member Nirmal Singh and MLA Ashok Khajuria, who said the party is firm to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk.
 
Omar's gamble may not pay off

Inspite of clear orders to the police and other security agencies to foil BJP's "Ekta Yatra" in the interest of peace in Kashmir, this decision of the Omar Abdullah government offers no guarantee against re-eruption of violence in the Kashmir Valley. The Jammu and Kashmir government has


related stories
PM appeals for restraint by political parties on R-day
declared the BJP's " yatra" aimed at hoisting national Tricolour at Lal Chowk on The Republic Day as a "threat to peace in Kashmir", as per its decision on Thursday. It has asked the security agencies that no programme that has the potential to disturb the peace should be allowed to take place.
The context was the hoisting of BJP's yatra and flag hoisting plan. But the moot question remains unanswered: whether foiling the hoisting of the national Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar achieve that goal.

There are no immediate answers.But what is clear is that the BJP's flag hoisting is as much of politics as is the move behind stopping it.

BJP wants to play up the flag hoisting issue to "challenge the separatists," who have started hurling threats to all those seeking to celebrate the national festival- Republic day on January 26.

The ruling coalition,National Conference, in particular, want to prove a point that the " yatra" has the "potential of vitiating peaceful atmosphere in the state," and it was demonstratively working in the interest of peace.

Law Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar on Friday tried to underscore this point that the peace in Kashmir has been brought about by great efforts of the NC-led coalition government. He claimed that summer unrest in which "112 children were killed," was calmed due to the strenuous efforts of the NC government.

Between these two conflicting stands – BJP asserting the right to hoist Tricolour as Indians anywhere in the country and the separatists' plans to derail it, the state government is caught in a dilemma.

Every year Tricolour is hoisted at Lal Chjowk too. Paramilitary forces do it. Since 1991, with few exceptions , one or the other groups, Shiv Sena or Bajrang dal have been sending their small groups to Lal Chowk and hoisting the flag.

"I hoist the ( national flag) on August 15", Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told Hindustan Times.

On Republic Day the flag is hoisted all across the state, including Srinagar, so why do they want to hoist flag at Lal Chowk," he asked.

But a counter question that is being asked in the streets in Jammu is, if the flag is not hoisted at Lal Chowk, will the situation stay calm in Kashmir.

"There is no guarantee," an official admitted.

"We can only make efforts but what might ignite the trouble in 2011 is a secret that Kashmir summer unfolds at the last minute since 2008.," the official said requesting that should not be quoted.

The move of the government, instructing police to take all measures to ensure that there is no disturbance to peace, virtually amounts to telling the law enforcing agencies that no one should be seen at or around lal Chowk carrying Tricolour on the Republic Day with the intention to hoist it.

That order seems to have come in the wake of the claims of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha, whose president Anurag Thakur, is leading the march to Lal Chowk, that many of their activists have reached Srinagar and they would " unfurl the flag come what may".

It also speaks of the fears of the government, arising out of the fact that many BJP supporters from neighbhouring states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh would join the march – in both the states the party is either ruling or ruling in partnership- and they might take the routes to Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

" What happened in the aftermath of 1992 Ekta Yatra," Sagar noted, " is a known to everyone," implying that the situation deteriorated in the Valley.

Sagar and top leadership of National Conference were not in the Valley in 1990s- they had fled to Jammu . They returned only in 1996 only after elections in which National Conference was declared winner on most of the seats.

Until that time, and even during the NC regime, militants were calling shots.

Today, militancy is at its lowest ebb, and 1992 did not witness as much violence as was the case in the two preceding years or in 1993 and 1994.

But the street power of protests may be lying dormant at the moment, but it has the potential to re-erupt, like a volcano. Omar Abdullah has taken a gamble – despite his efforts to stop the yatra , it might happen.
 
BJP activists on 'yatra' to J&K sent back home

Ahmednagar: Police and railway officials here hoodwinked Bharatiya Janata Party activists headed to Jammu and Kashmir for the Republic Day flag hoisting and shunted their special train back to Karnataka early Sunday.

The Bengaluru-New Delhi Karnataka Express, whose 18 bogies were full of Karnataka BJP youth activists, arrived at Sarola station in the district and was due for onward departure to the north.



The activists, estimated at around 1,500, were scheduled to join other colleagues from different states for the party's Tiranga Yatra in Srinagar on January 26.

However, the centre and Jammu and Kashmir government have already announced that political activists from other states would not be allowed to create mischief. The local railway authorities here acted swiftly to thwart the onward journey of the train.

When the train halted here, they blacked out Sarola railway station.

Taking advantage of the blanket of darkness, they detached the train's engine and attached it to the rear of the train.


Two more bogies with around 150 Railway Protection Force personnel were also attached to the train and around 1.30 am, it "started" its journey - but in the reverse direction and back to Karnataka.

It was only too late when the BJP workers, many of them fast asleep, in the train realised that they had been taken for a ride and halted the train at Nagansur station on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.

A railway official said that "the drastic measure was implemented in order to avoid any untoward situation in Maharashtra."

The police operation resulted in delays of two other trains traversing by the route.
 
Lal Chowk flag-hoisting will be an insult: Omar

Omar Abdullah invited BJP leaders to join J&K's official Republic Day celebrations at Srinagar's Bakshi Stadium ''to give the flag hoisting the respect it deserves''.

He said if BJP goes ahead with its plans to unfurl the tricolor at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on January 26, it would be a throwback to Murli Manohar Joshi's flag hoisting there in 1991 and an insult to it.

''The memory I have of that (1991) yatra is this sea of security people and a sort of pole in the middle and the flag going up with no idea whose hand is on the rope and who's raising it,'' he said.

If the Ekta Yatra reaches Lal Chowk this would be repeated, he added. ''Unlikely that I'll be able to leave Lal Chowk open and give them the space to raise the flag with the pomp it deserves, which I think is an insult to the flag,'' he said. He said if the BJP really wants to raise the flag with the pomp and ceremony it deserves it should join the official ceremony.

''Instead of trying to overshadow the function, they should be a part of the function and give respect to the flag hoisting that it deserves," he said.

Read more: Lal Chowk flag-hoisting will be an insult: Omar - The Times of India Lal Chowk flag-hoisting will be an insult: Omar - The Times of India


Read more: Lal Chowk flag-hoisting will be an insult: Omar - The Times of India Lal Chowk flag-hoisting will be an insult: Omar - The Times of India
 
3-tier security for Republic Day ; CRPF to hoist flag in Lal Chowk area
Srinagar, Jan 21 : Three-tier security has been put in place in and around the Bakshi stadium, venue for main Republic Day (RD) function to be held on January 26 in the Kashmir valley.


The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will hoist the national flag on Palladium post in the historic Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of summer capital Srinagar, a CRPF spokesman said.

He said a commandant of local CRPF Battalion will unfurl the Tricolour on Palladium post in Lal Chowk on January 26. However, he said, no flag hoisting ceremony would be held at Gantaghar, a stones throw away from Palladium post.

He said CRPF Inspector General (IG) was unfurling the national flag on Gantaghar untill 2007 but the practice was discontinued from 2008.

''We have taken over the Bakshi stadium on Srinagar-Airport road,'' CRPF spokesman Commandant Prabhkhar Tripathi told UNI.

He said adequate number of security force personnel had been deployed inside the stadium, who are keeping round-the-clock vigil.

He said security around the stadium has also been tightened and sharp shooters have taken position to foil any attempt by militants to cause any disturbances.

''Though there is no specific information about any militant plan to carry out attack in any particular area, but we do not want to take any chance,'' he said adding three tier security arrangements had been made for smooth conduct of the RD function.
 
Ok when no tricolor was hoisted last year too then why BJP is making hungama this year????

First time in 19 years flag not hoisted at Lal Chowk

SRINAGAR: The national flag was not hoisted by security forces in Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of Srinagar, on the Republic Day today for the first time in 19 years.

The usual hustle and bustle was not there in the heart of the city as people preferred to remain indoors in view of strike call given by separatists as well as tight security measures taken by the authorities.

The tricolour used to be unfurled on the clock tower, popularly known here as "Ghantaghar" in Lal Chowk on the Republic Day and Independence Day since 1991.

The first time the flag was hoisted at the clock tower was in 1991 when then BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi did it amidst rocket attacks by militants.

No official reason was cited for not hoisting the national flag in Lal Chowk, which recently saw a 22-hour terrorist siege.

The authorities last evening eased security restrictions in the city to lessen inconvenience to the people. Police and paramilitary forces remained deployed in strength but checking of vehicles and frisking of pedestrians was restricted to a few places.

"We have not lowered the guard but several steps have been taken to avoid unnecessary harassment of the people. Instead of random checking at every half a km in the city, the vehicles were searched at a few places particularly at the entry points," officials said yesterday.

However, tight security arrangements were made today in view of terror threat to the R-day

Read more: First time in 19 years flag not hoisted at Lal Chowk - The Times of India First time in 19 years flag not hoisted at Lal Chowk - The Times of India

Read more: First time in 19 years flag not hoisted at Lal Chowk - The Times of India First time in 19 years flag not hoisted at Lal Chowk - The Times of India
 

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