Srinagar: On Sunday, the 20th day of the communication clampdown, people of Srinagar woke up to another surprise. The state flag of Jammu and Kashmir, which would fly high atop the civil secretariat beside the tricolour, was gone.As a custom, both the tricolour and state flag would be brought down every evening and unfurled in the morning. On Sunday, only the national flag fluttered from the top of the six-storey secretariat, the highest seat of governance in J&K.“Both the flags were downed last evening as was the norm. Today, we too were taken by surprise to find the state flag missing. I have no knowledge about the development,” said a security guard standing at the main entrance of the secretariat.The development took place almost three weeks after the Centre read down Article 370 which gave Jammu and Kashmir its separate flag and constitution, and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.The state flag was adopted by the J&K constituent assembly on June 7, 1952 after threadbare discussions between representatives from the state and the government of India.Also read | ‘This is Not the 1970s’: IAS Officer Quits in Anguish Over Kashmir ‘Emergency’There was no disagreement between the parties when it came to the adoption of the ‘Flag of the State’ by the constituent assembly. The decision taken by the constituent assembly was then reflected in Section 144 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.The state flag was rectangular in shape and red in colour with three equidistant white vertical strips of equal width next to the staff and a white plough in the middle with the handle facing the stripes.The Jammu and Kashmir flag. Photo: Office Holidays/Flickr (Public domain)The J&K constitution made it mandatory on the part of authorities and other state functionaries representing different wings of J&K to show respect to the state flag.Apart from the Secretariat, the state flag was raised atop J&K high court and on the official vehicles of the governor – the state’s constitutional head – the speaker of J&K legislative assembly and the chairman of the J&K legislative council, along with those of the chief minister and ministers of the state.“In case of State of Jammu and Kashmir because of a specific Constitutional provision, even an omission may amount to disrespect to the state flag. Such omission would include failure to hoist the flag by persons and at places required to maintain the sanctity of the flag,” the Section 144 of the J&K constitution says.In December 2015, the J&K high court had, in its judgment on a petition seeking hoisting of the state flag on January 26, along with the tricolour, ruled that the state flag was one of the “attributes of the constitutional autonomy or limited or residual sovereignty – by whatever name we call it – enjoyed by the state of Jammu and Kashmir.”In his petition, retried IFS officer Abdul Qayoom Khan had said that according to the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, as mandated under Section 144, the state was under constitutional obligation to “display dignity and honor of J&K flag” along with the national flag, in order to demonstrate semi-republican character of J&K.“By not doing so, it constitutes serious breach of provisions of law and also sanctity of constitution and the flag is being undermined. Why is the tiranga flag which is relevant only with respect to defence, external affairs and communication in J&K only being hoisted on January 26, the Republic Day of India?” he had said in the petition.Also read | Ground Report: In Drass, World’s Second-Coldest Inhabited Place, Winter Comes Early“All over the world the constitution and the flag are symbols of sovereignty of free nations representing the hopes and aspirations of their people. Our flag, symbol of Kashmiri nationalism, cultural identity, sovereignty and guarantor of our exclusive residency rights, manifests itself to the world that we are the separate republican community. Our flag is not a mere piece of cloth of a shape, design and colour. It reflects pain and agony suffered by the people to realise the dream of freedom. Its origin lies in the bloodshed on July 13, 1931, the day Kashmiris rose en masse and spontaneously against the oppression of Dogra rulers. It was that day when one of the freedom fighters picked up the blood-drenched shirt of a martyr, tied it to a pole and declared amidst acclamation that ‘this will be our flag,’” the petition reads.A Kashmir resident protests against the Article 370 decision. Photo: ReutersThe Bhartiya Janta Party had been pushing for the scrapping of the state’s special status, often taking recourse to the rhetoric that there cannot be two flags and two constitutions in the same country.Its oft repeated slogan ‘ek vidhan, ek nishan, ek pradhan’ was the cornerstone of the party’s politics in Kashmir ever since the death of its ideologue Shyama Prasad Mookerjee in a J&K jail.After the reading down of Article 370, J&K’s own constitution had technically lost its power on August 5. On Sunday, what many saw as an enduring symbol of autonomous J&K, the state’s own flag, was downed.Also read: BJP’s Fantasy of Subjugating Pakistan Finds Expression in ‘Kashmiristan’Umar Khan, a resident of uptown Srinagar, drove past the Secretariat with a distinct feeling of helplessness.“This flag represented our unique history, our unique ethno-national character, our long fight against oppression. We are now going back in time,” he said.The Kashmir Valley is in the midst of an unprecedented communication blockade and is facing restrictions on public movement as well. Both landline phone and mobile services have been blocked and internet suspended, cutting the Valley of more than 7.2 million people off from the rest of the country and the world.Both the government of India and state administration fears that the region might witness mass protests as there is simmering anger over the unilateral decision taken by BJP-led Central government to strip the state of its autonomous character.
