The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) J&K headquarters located at Srinagar’s Jawahar Nagar witnessed a rare beeline of people placing orders for the tricolour ahead of Independence Day as markets ran short of the flags in the Kashmir valley this year.
In a first, the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration has directed officials to hoist flags on all government buildings, including educational institutes, hospitals, departmental offices, courts and municipalities. Deputy Commissioners have been directed to ensure that all rehearsals, Independence Day functions, and the hoisting of flags, are filmed for official records.
The administration has also decided to lift the pandemic-related ceiling on the assembly of more than 25 people for staff members and students to organise I-Day functions in schools and colleges on August 15.
There are 11,633 educational institutes in the Kashmir division. Hundreds of other official locations have been identified for flag hoisting.
The move has led to a dearth of flags and the BJP’s office has been busy arranging cloth and stitching flags for locals as well as officials.
The BJP has also decided to double the flag-hoisting ceremonies by its party leaders in 46 Assembly constituencies and 10 District Headquarters of the Kashmir valley. “We held around 50 ceremonies last year. This year, we will organise 100 ceremonies of flag hoisting,” BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur told The Hindu.
“We are aware of the shortage of the flags in the valley. Many departments, especially teachers at government schools, who have been rehearsing the national anthem for the past three days, approached us for flags. We have entertained dozens and dozens of orders,” he added.
He said the demand for flags was a slap on the face of those who said that after the revocation of Article 370, there would be no one to carry the India flag. “It will be for the first time in 75 years that a record number of tricolours will be unfurled, both by locals as well as officials,” Mr. Thakur added.
However, a teacher in a government high school in Srinagar city said there were other reasons for approaching the BJP office, adding, “Stitching flags from local tailors in the city would have endangered our lives. Many parents of students have already refused to be part of the official functions, fearing being marked as targets by militants and their supporters.”
Several teachers expressed anxiety over organising and videographing I-Day rehearsals. “We fear that the decision to release videos of rehearsals online by officials will have repercussions in the future,” another teacher said.
Prior to 2019, I-Day functions in Kashmir were generally limited to the District Headquarters, with the main functions held in the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu. Separatist shutdown calls were known to disrupt the movement of people and vehicles, also impacting attendance of employees at these functions.
