Will raise national flag only when J&K flag is brought back: Mehbooba
   Date :25-Oct-2020

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SRINAGAR :
 
The PDP chief also said that she will not contest any election until Article 370 is restored
 
 
PEOPLE’S Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday lashed out at the Centre for abrogating Article 370 and said that she will raise the Indian tricolour when the “flag of Jammu and Kashmir” is brought back. Addressing her first press conference after being released from detention, she said: “My flag is this (points to the flag of J&K kept on the table in front of her). When this flag comes back, we will raise that flag (tricolour) too. Until we get our own flag back, we won’t raise any other flag. This flag forged our relationship with that flag.”
 
“Our relationship with the flag of this country is not independent of this flag (Jammu and Kashmir’s flag). When this flag comes in our hand, we will raise that flag too,” she added. The PDP chief also said that she will not contest any election until Article 370 is restored. “I have been a street fighter. I have no interest in elections. Until our status is back, Mehbooba Mufti will not contest any elections. My struggle will not be for restoration of Article 370, it will be the resolution of Kashmir problem,” she said. “We have acceded to a liberal, democratic and secular India. We are uncomfortable with today’s India,” Mufti said.
 
Mufti said that Jammu and Kashmir came into an international spotlight like never before after Article 370 is revoked. “It is a fact that China captured 1000 sq km of our land. I think we somehow managed to get back around 40 km. China speaks of Article 370 too. They say it is disputed and ask why was J&K made UT? Jammu and Kashmir came into international view like never before after abrogation,” she added. Mufti, who was in detention from August 5 last year following the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state, was released on October 13. Hitting out at the BJP, she said that the party has “demolished” the country’s Constitution and wants to replace it with its manifesto.
 
She regretted that the Opposition parties in the country, except a few, went silent on the issue thinking this happened in Kashmir and not with them. “But then, the BJP demolished the same Constitution, passed the Citizenship Amendment Act and polarised the people. Then made an anti-farmer law and now, I think they will steal the rights of the downtrodden communities like Dalits,” she said. “They want to replace the country’s Constitution with the BJP’s manifesto, but this will not work. So many people like Pharaoh and Hitler came, but this dictatorship will not work,” the former Chief Minister said.