3 PDP leaders resign over Mufti’s Tricolour remark

Tribune News Service/PTI

New Delhi/Srinagar, October 26

Three PDP leaders from the Jammu region resigned from the party following a statement by its president Mehbooba Mufti regarding the national flag, PDP sources said here on Monday.

Senior leaders TS Bajwa, Hassan Ali Waffa and Bed Mahajan resigned from the PDP, they said. The trio was unhappy with Mehbooba’s statement about not holding the Tricolour till Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, including its separate state flag, was restored, the sources said. The Tricolour “provocation” by PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti has led the BJP to giving a new colour to the Accession Day celebrations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Honour Tricolour

If such leaders (Mehbooba) want to live in India, they have to honour the Tricolour, otherwise they will be dragged out of the country and thrown into Pakistan. — Ravinder Raina, J&K BJP chief

Meanwhile, BJP cadres today hoisted Tricolour and led ‘Tiranga’ rallies in different parts of the UT, including Srinagar and Jammu. In Srinagar BJP leaders led the ‘Tiranga’ rally via the Gupkar road where residences of top leaders, including NC supremo Farooq Abdullah, are located.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti recently said she would not hold the Indian Tricolour until Jammu and Kashmir got back its erstwhile state flag.

In Jammu, BJP spokesperson Abhijeet Singh Jasrotia, who is also the general secretary of Shree Amar Kshatriya Rajput Sabha, burnt the flag and constitution of the erstwhile state. They had lost their meaning after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A, Jasrotia said.

“The Rajput biradari and Dogras of Jammu are ready to strike back at the anti-national and rejected leaders of Kashmiri groups,” Jasrotia added.

Meanwhile according to the Kashmir BJP media incharge Manzoor Bhatt, the ‘Tiranga’ rally, led by state general secretary Vibodh Gupta, vice-president and co-incharge Kashmir Sofi Yusaf, received “overwhelming response from local people of Kashmir”. “The response to the rally is a tight slap to so-called leaders of Kashmir who have made seditious statements in the past few days. The response to the rally is a testimony to the fact that Gupkar declaration leaders are living in fool’s paradise,” Bhatt added.

Vibodh Gupta called upon youth of J&K to “not fall in the trap of separatist and power-hungry political parties like PDP and NC and commit themselves towards the cause of peace and prosperity”.

Sofi Yusaf added: “We are proud to be an integral part of India. Few power-hungry leaders are dancing on the beats of Pakistan and befooling the youth of the Valley to fulfil their agendas”.

In Jammu former Deputy CM Kavinder Gupta talked about development and prosperity after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A.

3 held for bid to hoist national flag

Srinagar: Three people, claiming to be Bharatiya Janata Party workers from Kupwara district, were on Monday detained while trying to hoist the Tricolour at the historic clock tower near the city centre here, officials said.

They said The trio raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and in favour of the party and tried to hoist the Tricolour. However, the police swung into action and took them into custody, the officials said.

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