Why did Abdullahs, Muftis skip Rahul’s Tricolor hoisting event in Srinagar?

While three former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir – Farooq Abdullah his son Omar and Mehbooba Mufti - have participated in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra with enthusiasm, they were conspicuously absent during Tricolour hoisting ceremony at Lal Chowk, here, on Sunday.

Rahul, his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi unfurled the Tricolour and sang the national anthem near Ghanta Ghar (clock tower) at historic Lal Chowk in Srinagar. However, Abdullahs and Muftis didn’t turn up for the flag hoisting.

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On January 20, NC president Farooq Abdullah travelled 350 km from Srinagar to Lakhanpur to embrace the Gandhi scion when his march entered Jammu and Kashmir. Flamboyant Abdullah even compared Rahul’s Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir walkathon to one undertaken by Vedic scholar Shankaracharya in the eighth century.

Just a week later, junior Abdullah joined Rahul in highway town Banihal clad in a white T-shirt like the Congress leader in chilly Kashmir winter.

On January 28, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and her daughter Iltija Mufti joined Rahul near Awantipora when the foot march entered its penultimate day. Even Mehbooba said the yatra was like a breath of fresh air in Kashmir as it allowed people to come out of their homes in numbers for the first time since August 2019.

However, the absence of these high-profile Kashmiri politicians at Lal Chowk event today raised many eyebrows.

“Leaders of Kashmir-based pol parties, who joined Rahul's yatra at Lakhanpur, Jammu, Banihal & Awantipora in last few days, were conspicuously absent at the Tricolour hoisting ceremony at Lalchowk today,” tweeted senior journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz.

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In a sarcastic mode, he said Abdullahs and Muftis could have added some colour with “tifl-o-jawan-o-pir ke jhandé" (stanza from J&K’s national song) at Lal Chowk.

The opening lines of the song are “Lehra aye kashmir key jhanday, Hal walay dilgeer key jhanday, her dam Lehra, her soo Lehra, Taba Kayaamat paiham Lehra (Let this flag of Kashmir be unfurled, Whoever plough the land, May it fly forever, in every nook and corner, till the day of judgement, May I hold thee!).”

Before the revocation of J&K’s special status under Article 370 in August 2019, the erstwhile state had its own constitution, flag and national song.

While Mehbooba has openly been saying that members of her party would not raise the Tricolor unless they are allowed to raise the flag of J&K, Abdullahs have made silence over the issue.

“If Farooq Abdullah or Omar would have participated in unfurling the Tricolor with Rahul today, it would have given Mehbooba a huge political mileage in Kashmir. It is due to this reason, Abdullahs skipped the event,” observed Majid Hyderi, a political observer.