In the midst of the tiranga yatra, which has now acquired controversial overtones, Anurag Thakur, president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), speaks to FE?s Nistula Hebbar on why the yatra is necessary. Excerpts:
Why a Tiranga Yatra? There are a lot of issues on which the youth can be mobilised today.
We have found that there was a general demoralisation with the way things were being run, the army was demoralised, the youth was finding no inspiration in the policies of this government. Then we saw that if separatists could move to Delhi and make derogatory statements about our nationhood, then why shouldn’t the Indian flag be hoisted at Lal Chowk.
We also wanted in a way to reiterate some of our long standing demands like the abolition of article 370, the resettlement of Kashmiri pandits, and to expose the communal face of the Congress, which plays the religious card.
In case you are not allowed to cross the border and hoist the flag, what is your Plan B?
We can?t make our plan public.
The Prime Minister said your Yatra might disturb the peace in the valley.
Its most unfortunate that the Prime Minister considers the unfurling of the national flag a divisive act. It seems that he is speaking the language of the separatists.
It is being said that instead of putting the government on the mat over corruption and price rise, the party is wasting precious resources on a Yatra.
Whenever we talk of the flag we talk of the nation and the state it is in today. We focus on the fact that it was historical blunders committed by Nehru and Indira Gandhi which has brought us to this state of affairs. It is the same government which is wrapped in graft, and which again wants to keep Kashmir away from us. I have undertaken this yatra not as a political duty but as my national duty.