India is approaching its 75th independence day. August 15 will mark the celebration of a new India that has announced itself on the world stage as a global leader and a force to be reckoned with.
The month of August this year holds a special significance because of another historic reason. The revocation of Article 370 and 35A will complete three years on August 5 following the momentous development that took place in the Parliament of India in 2019, ushering in a new era of incontrovertible and unambiguous integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the union of India.
As part of a nationwide programme under the aegis of its ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the Government of India (GoI) recently launched the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign, a symbolic gesture of patriotism expected of all Indians who love and revere their motherland, in the run-up to August 15 to embolden the spirit of nationalism in the country.
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| image source : thehindu.com |
Har Ghar Tiranga is a purely apolitical campaign aimed at encouraging the people of India to engage in an act of personal connection with the Tricolour that invokes the feeling of patriotism and emphasises our honour for the national flag as much as it echoes our commitment to nation-building. However, the separatist-leaning political class of Kashmir comprising the National Conference (NC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), among others, pathetically enough, found brazen ways to sully the sanctity of the Har Ghar Tiranga movement.
PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti, made ludicrous claims that the central government and the J&K UT administration had been forcing students, shopkeepers and employees to buy national flags. This was after an allegation regarding traders and business owners in south Kashmir being warned of consequences for refusing to deposit money for the tricolours started doing the rounds.
Mufti, along with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and the Gupkar alliance spokesperson Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, shared unverified videos on Twitter showing loudspeaker announcements made in Bijbehara asking shopkeepers to deposit rupees 20 each for the Indian flags. Mehbooba went on to accuse the Modi government of treating Kashmir as an adversary territory and trying to impose patriotism on local Kashmiris by virtue of the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign.
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Nevertheless, senior voices in the J&K administration extended a quick clarification, suggesting that the announcements in the purported videos were made improperly and an inquiry had been ordered into the matter to ascertain whether it was a mistake or mischief. That was it.
The controversy should have been laid to rest there and then by the Kashmiri politicians in the interest of the build-up towards India’s 75th Independence Day, a country they pretend to bear allegiance to in order to stay in business. But the Gupkar lobby clearly just wanted to vitiate the atmosphere days before the August 15 celebrations in Kashmir by besmirching the Har Ghar Tiranga movement.
These duplicitous political voices in the valley, who have been reduced to shadows of their former selves in the post-Article 370 abolishment era, have resorted to disinformation tactics and the practice of demonising the Modi government and the J&K administration as the recourse to maintain their relevance in the current scenario.
Nationalism paramount
That said above, the conspicuous exhibition of disrespect towards the tricolour at the hands of the Gupkar lobby augurs well from the nationalistic perspective in terms of exposing the alliance further. On the one hand, is the nationalism-driven Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Government of India and on the other hand, is the separatism-subscribing political class of Kashmir; when juxtaposed, the contrast becomes as vivid as it can get. While the former has scripted itself as the protagonist of J&K’s long overdue divorce from a dubious status that challenged the region’s identity as an integral part of India, the latter, despite its overt secessionist preferences, has been a recipient for decades of the enormous benefits connected with being part of the Indian political ecosystem.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in his J&K visit late last month, reiterated that the Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) was a part of India and pitched for reclaiming the territory. Hence, it is ironic that despite the Modi government having constantly upped the ante in the last couple of years, the leaders of the PDP, the NC and the likes continue to sell the false hope of reinstatement of J&K’s erstwhile status to those they deem to be their vote bank.
image source : indiatvnews.com
The narrative has long evolved from whether or not J&K indisputably belongs to India to when the GoI will eventually put the foot on the gas to restore POJK into India where it rightfully belongs; therefore, the Gupkar lobby needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Although the lobby deep down is cognizant of the fact that J&K will never revert to the pre-Article 370 revocation period yet they are desperate to breathe life back into the shattered narrative of Kashmir being a political issue that can be resolved through dialogue with Pakistan.
Gupkar lobby’s self-goal
As making statements or spearheading activities with separatist overtones caters to their brand of politics, it is, thus, no surprise at all that the Gupkar alliance has hit a new low by questioning the authenticity of the Modi government’s Har Ghar Tiranga campaign. However, they have ended up scoring a self-goal in the process as the right-thinking Kashmiri population has awakened to the fact that anything which is not pro India cannot be pro Kashmir.
The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has directed the party’s J&K leaders to be in ready-mode for the imminent assembly polls. It is evident that the BJP will fight this election on the basis of a mutually interdependent ‘development and nationalism’ combination offered by the party and the J&K administration since the scrapping of the controversial law in August 2019.
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| image source : thestatesman.com |
The people of Jammu and Kashmir who want a stable and prosperous region have accepted this combination with great pride and love for their nation India. As a consequence, insulting the Tiranga or employing similar other tricks will only do the Gupkar lobby more harm than good, both politically and existentially.
