For the last six weeks, my social media feed is populated every day by messages from all over Kashmir proudly informing me about the Indian National Tricolour having been installed at their school, college, administrative institution or offices. Never before in the history of 75 years have so many Tricolours been seen fluttering proudly in the crisp Kashmir air beckoning to the people to give up their unnecessary reluctance of being called Indian and being truly integrated with their nation, India. Article 370 had given J&K the right to its own Constitution and its own flag. While the National Flag and the state flag were always to fly together many a time only the state flag flew. Now with Article 370 amended only the National Flag can fly on state buildings and institutions or at private places with full dignity accorded as per the Flag Code of India. There is a new spirit in the air this Independence Day when the National Flag is finding a new narrative all over Kashmir. The necessity has been sorely felt to give impetus and greater authenticity to the programme to restore more dignity to the people afflicted by proxy conflict. The outreach and engagement process, alongside the town hall style interactions with the common man are all given a decided focus if held in the shadow of the National Flag. Before Aug 5, 2019 there was resistance towards doing this and we were magnanimous to accept the absence of the national symbol. However, the everyday viewing of the symbol by citizens evokes a different perception of appreciation for the values and culture symbolised by the National Flag.
Thus, a 100-feet high Tricolour fluttering atop Hari Parbat, the point considered the virtual centre of Srinagar would give a majestic view and it is to be lit up by night. A similar one at Gulmarg has just been inaugurated giving greater dignity to the iconic winter sports capital of India. For me, as a former General Officer Commanding of the Dagger Division, Baramula, under whom Gulmarg falls, it’s a dream to see the Tricolour fly atop Afarwat the over 13,000 feet mountain feature just below which the ski slopes of White Lily start. I am quite certain one day it will.
My personal fascination with flags and their utility to enjoin people, trigger patriotic passion, simply strengthen bonds, even bring more dignity to a situation or to charge up an environment, goes back to a couple of life experiences. One of them was in 2004 when then leadership of Dagger Division thought that celebrating the Raising Day of the oldest division of the Indian Army by hosting drinks and dinner was sacrilege to the memory of the bravehearts who gave the division its dignity and name. It was decided that a division flag would be placed at the highest point within the division sector with all brigade commanders and the General Officer Commanding climbing to the spot, saluting the division flag and holding a brief operational conference at the same site. The challenge was that the site was at 14,500 feet above sea level, a rocky mountain top called Kala Pahar, the junction point of four major mountain ranges of Kashmir. The second challenge was a little more intense. The flag that was decided to be raised at Kala Pahar was not an ordinary cloth and rope variety. It was a 180 kg steel plated monstrosity to be placed on ball bearings and embedded in a stone platform so that it would rotate in the high speed winds which hit Kala Pahar day and night. To add even more glamour and suspense to the flag, a solar powered red light was emplaced at its top which would flash as long as the flasher unit worked. The Division Engineers and EME units worked day and night to ensure the right specification was produced and then the Infantry unit took over, organised the logistics and ensured that the flag was on the mountain top a few days before the climb by the commanders and nominated soldiers. It involved a stiff 10-hour climb from a base at 4,300 feet to 14,500 feet. But everything was done as per plan. As an additional measure, a decision was taken to place multiple lightning conductors near the flag with similar solar lights. It created much concern among the adversary troops deployed opposite who could not fathom for long what kind of a listening station the Indian Army had placed on top of Kala Pahar. The Dagger flag is still at this location.
In 2006, I was attending the Royal College of Defence Studies at the Seaford House, London. During the college’s overseas tour, the first country my group visited was Turkey. We arrived at Ankara well beyond midnight due to an engine fault with the British Airways flight. Yet, when we woke to the sunlight in our hotel rooms and threw open the windows the scene outside was one of Turkish patriotism, worn not on the sleeves of Turks but on the hill tops which surround the Ankara bowl. Gigantic flags half the size of football fields, placed on tall thick flag masts atop the hills at different distances created a surreal picture of the patriotic fervour that Kemal Ata Turk had so painstakingly cultivated among his compatriots. The four days in Ankara were dominated by the presence of the Turkish National Flag and much discussion continued around this. Of course, the mausoleum of Kemal Ata Turk is Ankara’s major attraction and that too has a Turkish National Flag embedded in the centre.
In 2007, I took over Dagger Division in Kashmir as its General Officer Commanding and brought the idea of Ankara’s National Flags to the staff. I thought Baramula wasn’t a bad place to commence the placement of Indian National Flags all over the mountains and important institutions in the hinterland. However, my nascent efforts to even place the flag masts at such places let alone unfurl the flags met with failure as I learnt that the destruction of a National Flag at the hands of miscreants was an offence placed at the altar of responsibility of the person under whose orders the National Flag was placed. It virtually meant that at least a section (10 men) would need to be placed to protect the dignity of each National Flag. Those were heady days of terrorism and single sections were never deployed which meant two sections for each National Flag. My idea came cropper because I could hardly afford company strength of troops to protect the flags. I made amends by ensuring that the hill opposite my residence across the Jhelum River always had a National Flag because the feature (Cheetah Post) was under permanent occupation of my brave Sikhs of the 46 Rashtriya Rifles.
Flags remained an obsession with me for most of my service in flag rank. That is the reason why my happiness knew no bounds when the Army in Kashmir informed me about the flags at Gulmarg and Hari Parbat. If the security environment permits the security of an unattended National Flag, then the Wastarwan and the Zabarwan Hills behind Avantipura and Srinagar must also find the presence of the flags. A large one each on Shankaracharya Hill and the Bhalu Post of the Badami Bagh Cantonment will provide a great visage.
As Lal Chowk finds a different feel with the luminescence of national colours, the message from the Prime Minister from the ramparts of Red Fort spells a clear and positive future. The Tricolour atop Kashmir will add substance to our national effort to bring Kashmir back from the past and welcome all its citizens in a New India.
The writer is a former GOC of the Srinagar based 15 Corps and Chancellor Central University of Kashmir.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.)
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