The president of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti, said on Friday that members of her party will not fly the Indian tricolor unless they are allowed to raise the flag of Jammu and Kashmir, whose right had been conferred on the former state for the now-defunct article 370 of the Constitution.
In his first interaction with the media after his release from 14 months in detention, Mufti said he had no interest in fighting the elections unless Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was restored.
Flanked by three senior party leaders, the PPD president placed the party flag and the old state flag on a table in front of her.
Mufti said that J & K’s relationship with the national tricolor was not independent of the previous state flag. Pointing to the flag in front of her, she said: “When this flag comes in our hand, we will also carry that (Indian) flag too.”
Mufti said the “thieves” had taken the flag from J&K.
“They themselves desecrated the Constitution … What do they expect from us? Our flag is this {pointing to the old J&K flag} and our relationships with the country’s flag have been established by this flag, ”he said.
On August 5, 2019, the state was stripped of its special status and limited autonomy with the invalidity of Article 370 by Parliament, which approved the constitutional changes proposed by the government. The state was forked into two Union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, with effect from October 31.
In the early hours of August 5, hundreds of political and worker leaders, including three former Mufti Chief Ministers, Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah, were arrested. The Abdullahs were released in March this year and Mufti was released in the second week of October.
Since then, the leaders have come together, along with four other parties in Kashmir, to forge an informal alliance that aims to work for the restoration of the region’s special status.
About two weeks ago, Farooq Abdullah fueled a controversy in a television interview when he wanted Article 370 restored with the help of China, which opposed the reorganization of the region.
The government has promised that the J&K Union Territory will have its own elected legislature, but the PDP chair said she was not interested in participating in the elections.
“Let me tell you that I have no interest in the election unless what has been taken from us is returned. Unless the Constitution under which we used to participate in elections is returned, I will not participate in elections, ”Mufti said.
He added that the central government had desecrated the Indian Constitution to push forward the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto promise to remove Article 370.
“It was the Constitution of India that had safeguarded our special status and empowered the J&K constituent assembly to maintain or eliminate the special status. It was the J&K constituent assembly that decided to keep this special provision, ”he said.
“After the repeal of section 370, they introduced a lot of laws in J&K just to provoke people. The J&K people are expendable to them. “
Addressing the national leadership, he said: “I want to tell the people in Delhi that they cannot forget the Kashmir issue. It’s there and you can’t close your eyes. “
In reaction to Mehbooba’s statement about “not raising tricolor”, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that “so-called Kashmiri politicians sometimes tend to be more dangerous than seemingly identified separatists.”
“Mehbooba Mufti claims to be a mainstream politician, but has reservations about wearing the tricolor. We have argued for the past few years that so-called Kashmiri politicians sometimes tend to be more dangerous than seemingly identified separatists, ”the union minister told the ANI news agency.
Mufti went on to say that his role will not be limited to restoring Article 370, it will go further.
“Regarding the final resolution of the Kashmir dispute, we will perform whatever our role is,” he said, adding that young Kashmiris had paid with their lives for the cause of the old state.
“It is time for political leaders to give their blood. The fight is not only mine or any particular party or alliance [of local political parties] alone. We ask people to join us. “
Mufti called it a political struggle to be fought peacefully.
“They say you can buy land at J&K; we have repealed article 370. Then they said they would give free vaccines. Today, Prime Minister Modi had to speak about Article 370 for the votes. This government has failed to solve the problems of this nation, ”he said.
The retired political expert and law professor who previously taught at the Central University of Kashmir, Sheikh Showkat Hussain said: “Now whatever your [Mehbooba] In their stance, ordinary Kashmiris remain skeptical unless those who speak of the Gupkar Declaration demonstrate their credibility and seriousness in relation to the restoration of the pre-August 2019 amendments, ”he said.
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