Srinagar: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Sunday concluded his 4,000-km Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar with a flag-hoisting ceremony on the iconic Lal Chowk’s clock tower. He had walked throughout Srinagar metropolis on the final day of the yatra together with different Congress leaders.
Gandhi was earlier scheduled to unfurl the tricolour on 30 January on the Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress (JKPCC) headquarters on Maulana Azad Highway within the metropolis, 800m away from the clock tower.
The celebration, nonetheless, bought permission to hoist the flag at Lal Chowk on Saturday night, and determined to shift the venue.
“Rahul Gandhi was speculated to unfurl the nationwide flag on 30 January on the PCC workplace since permission to take action elsewhere wasn’t granted. (However) final night, the J&Ok administration allowed him to take action in Lal Chowk underneath the situation that it needs to be accomplished at present, on 29 January, on the finish of the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Congress MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted out.
Earlier this month, Rajni Patil, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for J&Ok, had stated that unfurling the nationwide flag at Lal Chowk was a part of “RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) agenda”.
“We don’t imagine within the RSS agenda of hoisting the tricolour at Lal Chowk, the place it has already flown excessive,” she had stated.
Talking to ThePrint after her feedback on Lal Chowk, Patil had stated: “Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru unfurled the nationwide flag at Lal Chowk. Because the Nineteen Nineties, first (BJP’s) Murli Manohar Joshi unfurled the flag (there). Then (celebration leaders) Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley got here however had been stopped. The nationwide flag might be unfurled wherever. What I meant was that when our workplace is in Lal Chowk, why do we have to go there individually?”
Lal Chowk is the principle sq. in Srinagar situated within the coronary heart of the town. It’s surrounded by parks, colleges and media places of work. On a traditional day, Lal Chowk buzzes with exercise, however on some days, there are barbed wires round it.
In 1948, India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was the primary individual to hoist the nationwide flag at Lal Chowk.
Since independence, Lal Chowk has witnessed many vital occasions. In the course of the peak of militancy in J&Ok, the enduring sq. noticed separatist rallies and even Pakistani flags in attendance.
On the time in 1992, then BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, together with (now Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, had unfurled the tricolour at Lal Chowk on 26 January, marking the completion of the BJP’s Ekta Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Modi was then the yatra’s convenor.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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