The BJP’s plan to raise the national flag at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on Republic Day is quixotic, not to put too fine a point on it. The party might as well go fly the flag in Lucknow, Patna, or even Bengaluru (where it is in power) if it wants to keep its show distinct from that of a state government in an effort to remind us that it is a “nationalist” entity. (The ridiculous implication of this is that other parties are not nationalist.) In all those state capitals, any significant party or organisation intent on unfurling the national flag on a commemorative occasion only yards away from the venue where the chief minister is doing the ceremonials is apt to be invited by the state to be a part of the official celebration. Presumably, it is in this spirit that chief minister Omar Abdullah has urged the BJP to join the official function at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium. To everyone’s surprise the party has turned down the offer and foregone the opportunity of extricating itself from acute embarrassment.
Kashmir is a tricky place and Srinagar is not the same as Patna, Lucknow or Bengaluru, considering the security threat posed to it on a continual basis by terrorists who draw inspiration and nourishment from across the Line of Control. It is precisely for this reason that the BJP should have accepted Mr Abdullah’s suggestion in the spirit in which it was intended. The fact that the chief minister will be performing the traditional ceremony of raising the national standard on that special day underlines the reality that it is the upholders of India’s Constitution who are in control in J&K, not agents of a foreign power. This should have cautioned the BJP against any adventurist action in the name of seeking to burnish its “nationalist” credentials, and obviated the need for the party to go in for a boy-scout show of patriotic fervour. Going ahead with its wrong-headed plan gives the impression that the BJP does not think the ruling National Conference of J&K reposes its faith in the Constitution of India.
This is so much the surprise, for the NC was a partner in the NDA government at the Centre led by Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is no less surprising that former Union home minister L.K. Advani should be backing the flag-hoisting shenanigans of his younger colleagues. He should know that this could immediately become a security threat on Republic Day as there could be many undesirable Srinagar-based outfits that would want to play counterfoil to the BJP’s youth front, out of bravado if nothing else, and that this would magnify the problems any state government faces in Kashmir. The BJP should have had the good sense to be sensitive to the fact that for a protracted period in the latter part of last year all of Kashmir Valley was in flames. This renders it unwise in the extreme to do anything which is either provocative or foolish. It appears that from time to time the BJP is seized by the urge to hoist the national flag in Srinagar on Republic Day. In 1991, the senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was so keen on the exercise that a massive contingent of security forces had to keep him hidden from view as he fulfilled his urge to raise the flag at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. BJP volunteers were nowhere on the scene to provide their leader protection. It is not clear what point the BJP thinks it proved then. As for ordinary folk, they had a quiet laugh. There is still time. It is to be hoped that the BJP can be coaxed to quietly bury its Republic Day plan for Srinagar and save the state government some anxious moments.