Will Hold Tricolour, J&K Flag Together, Says Mehbooba Mufti

This was her first visit to Jammu after over one-year-long detention under the Pubic Safety Act.

File image of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.

(Photo Courtesy: PTI)

PDP President Mehbooba Mufti on Monday, 9 November, said that she will hold both the tricolour and the flag of Jammu and Kashmir together. Mufti also added that as an MLA, she had reaffirmed her faith in the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir as well as the sovereignty and integrity of India since they are inseparable, PTI reported.

In one of her statements last month, she mentioned that she was not interested in contesting elections or holding the national flag till the constitutional changes enforced on August 5 last year were rolled back.

Mufti had said, “Our relationship with the flag of this country is not independent of this flag (Jammu and Kashmir’s flag). When this flag comes in our hand, we will raise that flag too.”

On Monday, at the end of her first visit to Jammu after over one year-long detention, Mufti reportedly said, “We are the people, especially in the Kashmir Valley, who upheld the tricolour high over the years at the cost of thousands of our workers who were martyred.”

“We, including the BJP members, have taken an oath [in the Assembly and council] that we will affirm our faith in the Constitution of J&K and will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India. First, it was the J&K Constitution and then the sovereignty and integrity of the country. How is it, they cut one finger and leave the other, it is not right,” she said.

Upon being asked whether she will hold the tricolour, Mufti responded saying that she would hold both flags together.

“I had already replied that. I have taken an oath of the J&K Constitution when I became the MLA for the first time and I affirm my faith to the Constitution of J&K and uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India - both of which are interlinked. J&K flag and Indian flag, I will hold both these flags together.”

Mehbooba Mufti

Mufti also accused the BJP of “breaking the relations” of Jammu and Kashmir with the country by its last year’s decision of abrogating the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcating it into union territories.

Mufti’s remark in October that she would not contest elections or unfurl the Tricolour until Jammu and Kashmir gets its erstwhile state flag again had caused some BJP leaders to hit out at her. Apart from that, PDP leaders TS Bajwa, Ved Mahajan and Hussain A Waffa quit the party over her remark, alleging that they were “feeling quite uncomfortable over some of her actions and undesirable utterances, especially which hurt patriotic sentiments.”

(With inputs from PTI)