Nehru Did It Among People, LG Needs Security: Mehbooba On ‘Tiranga’ Rally

Hitting back at Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, PDP President Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday that the administration of today needed a posse of security personnel to carry the national flag, when in 1949, the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru did the same amidst ordinary people.

Mehbooba Mufti’s tweet came after LG Sinha reminded her that there were enough people carrying the national flag in the ‘tiranga’ rally held in the city. Organised as part of Independence Day celebrations, in an apparent reference to the PDP president in the rally, LG Sinha said that those who claimed that there won’t be anyone left in Jammu and Kashmir to raise the ‘tiranga’ should have seen the turnout at the rally.

In a retort, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister posted a picture of Nehru and said, “Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru with the tiranga standing tall amongst a sea of enthusiastic Kashmiris at Lal chowk Srinagar circa 1949. LG administration carrying the same national flag surrounded by a posse of security personnel in 2023”.

In the run-up to the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the PDP president had said that there would be no one left to raise the national flag if Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was revoked.

In related news, Mehbooba Mufti expressed happiness in the Supreme Court during the hearing — earlier in the week — on a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, but said it was a test of the decision by Jammu and Kashmir to accede to India.

The apex court is currently hearing several petitions dealing with challenges to the nullification of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which split the erstwhile state into two Union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Mehbooba told reported in Srinagar, “I am happy over the arguments in the SC. These are the issues me and PDP have been raising since 2019. The SC is fortunate that it does not face any hurdle, but our people are either arrested or put under house arrest for the same arguments that the decision taken in Parliament trampled the Constitution.”

Mehbooba said that arguments in the Supreme Court make it clear that until the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir does not recommend it to the President, the Parliament has no power to abrogate Article 370.

She said further, “There was no constituent assembly, (then J-K governor) Satya Pal Malik was made the constituent assembly, his advisors were made the council of ministers, what can be the biggest fraud than that? What could be the biggest betrayal than that with the Constitution? What can be the biggest disrespect of Parliament than using your brute majority to desecrate Parliament and using it to take illegal decision?” she said.

Meanwhile, the former Jammu and Kashmir CM said she was pleased that an open discussion is taking place in the apex court. She added that all lawyers, including Kapil Sibal and some others, were raising arguments emphatically that “no power in the world can end Article 360, even if you have 500 MPs unless and until J-K’s constituent assembly recommends it. This is clear”.