Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Friday said the circular mandating participation in a Tiranga rally organised by RSS-affiliated ABVP was wrong as the country belongs to all and not just a particular political party.
A circular was issued by the chief education officer, Poonch, directing heads of various schools to send 40-50 students and two teachers to the rally.
“India belongs to everyone, and not just one person or party. This flag belongs to all of us. If any political party would say that it belongs to them, we don’t accept that.
“If someone has issued such a circular, it is wrong and should not have been issued because on January 26 and August 15, the country’s martyrs are remembered, who rendered sacrifices to give all of us freedom,” Choudhary told reporters here.
The deputy CM visited the Hazratbal shrine to review the arrangements for the upcoming Shab-e-Mehraj, which is being observed on Monday.
Responding to questions by reporters on the issue, Choudhary said the circular should not have been issued.
“If any officer has issued such a circular, it is wrong. It should not have been done at the insistence of a political party. The country doesn’t belong to a political party, the country belongs to all the people who live here, to the people of every religion and race who have rendered sacrifices,” he said.
“When the time is right, we will see what can be done about the officer who has issued it,” the deputy chief minister added.
PDP leaders had criticised the circular and alleged the government was using education as a “propaganda tool” by “forcing” students to attend the rally.
Meanwhile, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday alleged that the Jammu and Kashmir government was using education as a “propaganda tool” by “forcing” students to attend a Tiranga rally organised by the RSS-affiliated ABVP, calling it unacceptable.
“The J&K Education Department, under the NC government, has made it mandatory for both private and public school children across Poonch to attend a rally organized by the ABVP, the RSS-affiliated student wing that normalises anti-Muslim bigotry. Using education as a propaganda tool by forcing students to attend ideological events is unacceptable,” PDP leader Iltija Mufti said in a post on X.
Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP president and former chief minister of the erstwhile state of J-K, was referring to a purported order by the chief education officer of Poonch, directing the heads of various schools to send 40-50 students and two teachers to the rally, which took place on Thursday.
Another PDP leader and MLA from Pulwama, Waheed Para, said J-K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah used to condemn such orders before the elections, but “this blatant transformation” under the current government stands as its only “so-called achievement” in the last 100 days.
“The J&K government’s order, with the education department’s endorsement of an ABVP rally, forcing students to participate, was condemned by Omar Abdullah before the elections. Yet now, this blatant transformation under the government stands as its only so-called ‘achievement’ in the last 100 days,” Para said on X.
He alleged that the Abdullah-led National Conference government had “abandoned every promise it made during the elections,” including the restoration of Article 370, the release of political prisoners, rationalisation of reservations, free electricity, free rations, the Youth Employment Act and the revocation of PSA and AFSPA.
“U-turns and betrayal continue,” the MLA from Pulwama added.
