By A M Ganaie
When Rahul Gandhi unfurled the tricolor in Lal Chowk, flashback of 2010 and 2016 must have played in the minds of people.
Forces had to seal the Gantha Ghar area in Lal Chowk to prevent Hurriyat sit in and unfurling the Pakistani flag. How can one forget a massive procession at Lal Chowk and the hoisting of a Pakistani flag on Clock Tower with anti-India rants?
Cut to August 5, 2019, a new Kashmir was born. Clock Tower is now illuminated in tricolor on all national days. Tricolor can be unfurled without any fear. People click selfies at Clock Tower with tricolors in their hands. Youth lead marches, hold fashion runway walks, and all under the shadow of tricolor.
What surprised many people among us was Rahul’s challenge to union home minister Amit Shah. The highway from Jammu to Srinagar is part of Jammu and Kashmir and walking is not big deal. Peace has returned to the entire Jammu and Kashmir including the highway.
It is the same highway that was sealed when BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi wanted to unfurl the tricolor on Clock Tower on Republic Day in 1991. Congress was in power at the Centre and the situation was so bad that the government had to mobilize all forces for highway security because militants had openly threatened to target the yatra. Later Joshi and young Modi had to be airlifted to Srinagar to hoist a flag.
For jogging Rahul’s memory, it was Mehbooba Mufti, who recently joined Bharat Jodo Yatra, once said if Article 370 or Article 35A is abolished, there will be no one in Kashmir to hold the tricolor. Today, not only she, but her newfound political friend Rahul Gandhi and lakhs of Kashmir are feeling proud in waving the tricolor.
It is not Rahul’s `kamal‘ that people are holding tricolor. It is because of the Modi-led government’s efforts that peace returned to Kashmir. It is because of peace and a sense of security that people unfurl the tricolor without fear. People know that holding the tricolor is no more a crime in Kashmir. Nobody will drag them to the police station for unfurling tricolor. So Rahul’s unfurling tricolor is courtesy Modi-Shah.
Post August 5, 2019, forces were given free hand to deal with terror. Separatists were pushed to the margins. Hartal calendars, stone pelting, and Chalo calls vanished in thin air. For the first time investment climate improved and tourist inflow has increased manifold. Business opportunities have opened up and transparency in governance has set in.
Rahul Gandhi may walk from Jammu and Kashmir in a free atmosphere. He may meet people. He may unfurl the tricolor at Clock Tower and PCC headquarters, which Congress leaders deserted in the early nineties fearing militants, but the truth is bitter. Rahul has the luxury of doing `Sheen Jung’ with his sister Priyanka. It is all because peace has dawned in Kashmir and it was Modi, Shah and Sinha that made the last leg of his BJY even possible. The early Rahul realizes and admits it the better it would be.
( Views are authors personal)
