Jammu: Every inch of Indian land that is occupied by Pakistan and China will be taken back, even if it means using military might, Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina said on Monday.
He also attacked former chief minister and PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti for her remarks on the tricolour, saying that “if such leaders want to stay in India”, they have to honour the national flag.
Mehbooba on Friday had said she was not interested in contesting elections or holding the tricolour till the constitutional changes enforced on August 5 last year were rolled back.
The PDP leader had also said that she would hold the tricolour only when the separate flag of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was restored.
The BJP-led Centre on August 5 last year had abrogated the erstwhile state’s special status and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
On Mehbooba’s recent remarks, Raina said, “If such leaders want to live in India, they have to honour the tricolour otherwise they will be dragged out of the country and thrown into Pakistan.”
The J-K BJP chief, who led a ‘Tiranga Rally’ from Gandhi Nagar to Maharaja Hari Singh Park here to mark accession day, said Maharaja Hari Singh, the last Dogra ruler, had acceded entire Jammu and Kashmir to India on this day in 1947.
“However, Pakistan-backed tribals attacked and a vast area of our land, including Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Kotli, Bhimbar, Bagh, Plandri, Sudnoti, Deva Btala, Neelam Valley, besides Gilgit and Baltistan, was taken away by force,” he said.
Raina added that all these areas are under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China. “These are parts of India and those living there are Indian nationals,” he asserted.
Pakistan and China have to vacate the Indian areas they illegally occupy as the accession of Jammu and Kashmir was full and final with India, he said during the rally that was organised by the BJP’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).
“We have heard the people of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir chanting ‘Go back Pakistan’ and the day is not far away when they will be back in their own country (India),” Raina said, adding “we have taken a pledge at the rally to get back all our areas and unfurl the national flag there”.
“We will take every inch of our land, whether in the illegal occupation of Pakistan or China. For that if we have to use our military might, we will not stand back,” he said.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir are Indians from the core of their heart, Raina said, adding that it was “Nehru’s (former prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru) blunders that have resulted in the present day situation in Jammu and Kashmir”.
Hitting out at Mehbooba, Raina said it is some people’s misconception that they can disrespect the national flag living in India. “We will not tolerate this,” he said.
Expressing happiness over declaration of public holiday to mark accession day, the J-K BJP chief said, “We are observing the day like a festival and like Independence Day.”
“We will light ‘diyas’ (earthen lamps) in the evening like on Diwali, and also illuminate all ‘chowks’ (road intersections) and ‘bazaars’ (markets),” Raina said.
He said the day was celebrated by BJP workers in Kashmir and they took out rallies from Kupwara to Srinagar and Srinagar to Anantnag.
Earlier, Raina unfurled the national flag at Maharaja Hari Singh park here and paid tributes to the last Dogra ruler along with former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta and Jammu and Kashmir BJYM president Arun Dev Singh.
Meanwhile, some youths and a lawyer hoisted the national flag at the fence of the heavily-guarded PDP headquarters at Gandhi Nagar for the second day on Monday.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad hoisted the national flag at the iron fence near the main entrance, but their attempt to hoist the tricolour at the main building was foiled by police.
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