When Jammu opposed (15th January 1952) hoisting of NC flag in place of Tri-colour national flag of India
| Jammu Kashmir Now | The facts and information abou 16-Jan-2019 |
India got independence on August 15, 1947 and simultaneously more that 550 princely states had to accede either to India or Pakistan. The accession of most of the state was peaceful and later it got assimilated with Indian system. But the state of Jammu and Kashmir was facing problem, as the state was not cleared off though it has acceded to India. Pakistan army was stationed in a large portion of the state. Though India made a complaint to United Nations (UN) in this regard but they could not get those areas vacated, which were illegally occupied by Pakistan. Still these areas are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.
In this problematic situation, the reign of the state was handed down to Sheikh Abdullah by the then Central government. Though his popularity was restricted to Kashmir only yet the reigns of the entire state was given in his hands. Sheikh Abdullah was an ambitious man who wanted that the matters related to Jammu and Kashmir should revolve around him. Indeed, the NC’s slogan was “One Leader, One Party, One Programme”—meaning Abdullah and the National Conference. Under this agenda, he wanted to sow the seeds of separatism across the state of Jammu and Kashmir. His over ambition to project his party and its flag as the flag of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was not acceptable to all the residents of the state. Hence, he started forcing people to salute his party flag instead of the Tri-colour flag of the nation. His own ambition was so pronounced that he wanted people to show respect to the flag his party.
On January 15, 1952 Sheikh went to Jammu to speak in an official function at Memorial College. By this time he had institutionalised the practice of hoisting his party National Conference (NC) Flag. His obsession with his party and its flag was so blatant that he could not tolerate anything less than that the people of Jammu and Kashmir must give respect to it. He went ahead with the same attitude here and hoisted the flag of NC instead of Tri-colour national flag of India and asked the students of Memorial College to salute it. The students were taken aback on this act of Sheikh because they were expecting Tri-colour national flag of India instead of flag of a political party. Hence, they registered their protest and refused to comply with the orders of Sheikh. This infuriated Sheikh and he severely punished the students, who did not comply with his wishes. But the students and locals did not back down though they were severely punished by Sheikh. They were determined to force the government to revoke its inhuman and undemocratic order. Therefore, they went for 38 days long hunger strike in 1952.