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| 'Campaign brings to forefront issue of fully integrating J&K' | | | AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, Jan 26 : Likening BJP's plan on flag hoisting at Lal Chowk to party ideologue Shyama Prasad Mookerjee's Kashmir campaign, senior leader L K Advani today said the agitation has brought to the forefront the issue of "fully integrating" J&K with the rest of the country. "Those who have been arrested in Jammu and Kashmir have brought this issue before the whole country. I think our Yuva Morcha and our two leaders in Parliament (Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley) have gone there and what they have done with a lot of courage has brought this issue and that of unifying the whole of Kashmir to the forefront," Advani said. Advani recalled the movement launched by BJP ideologue Shyama Prasad Mookerjee "to unify the whole of Kashmir with the rest of India" and the NDA regime's amendment of the Flag Code allowing all Indians the right to hoist the tricolour on all days."It is a result of this that we have started this agitation so that we can say that we have unfurled the flag at Lal Chowk," he told reporters after unfurling the tricolour at his residence on Republic Day.
In the early 1950s, Mookerjee had launched an agitation against the permit system to visit Jammu and Kashmir and a separate flag and Constitution for the state. He was arrested after his entry into J&K and died while in jail. Asked about the role of the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir Government in arresting senior BJP leaders and preventing hoisting of the flag at Lal Chowk, Advani said, "This is not the occasion for saying anything. My colleagues have already spoken."I want to say that Republic Day is a day which should make every Indian feel proud of being an Indian... Feel proud of the idea of India, of it being a secular democracy," he said The 84-year-old leader recalled his association with Mookerjee's agitation.
"I would only like to speak about our campaign for the tricolour that people like me who have been active in politics since Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee's time and who took part in his campaign and were witness to his sacrifice," he said.
He maintained that the NDA Government amended the Flag Code in 2002 to give every Indian the right to hoist the tricolour. "Whatever happened yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir reminds us of Mookerjee's sacrifice and the Kashmir agitation he started to fully integrate it with India. We should keep working in this direction... It also reminds me that the NDA government amended the flag code to give every citizen the right to hoist the tricolour from January 26, 2002 onwards," Advani said. He insisted that before the amendment those who waived flags "when a Sachin Tendulkar or Dhoni or a Pathan hit a six used to commit a crime". "Nobody said anything but it was a crime. From 2002, this situation changed," Advani said. |
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