The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday flagged off the first ever ‘Tiranga bike rally’ from Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, an area that was once considered a stronghold of separatists. The rally was organized to pay tribute to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Kargil War of 1999.
Amidst the unprecedented security arrangements, the biker’s rally at Kargil War Memorial in the Drass area of Ladakh was flagged off by BJP’s national general secretary Tarun Chug and president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Tejasvi Surya. The whole area was sealed and security forces were present in large numbers.
The BJP leaders raised slogans of ‘Azad Hindustan Zindabad’, ‘Akhand Bharat Zindabad’, and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ among others. They waved the tricolour and sang patriotic songs. This is the first time such a rally was organized by any political party to pay tributes to soldiers who lost their lives in the Kargil War.
Srinagar’s Lal Chowk used to be a stronghold of the separatists till 2019 when the central government reorganized Jammu and Kashmir and made it a Union Territory. The separatists used to call for peoples’ march to Lal Chowk, demanding freedom during the unrests of 2008 and 2010.
A police official told news agency PTI that 100 bikes of the BJYM members from different parts of the country participated in the rally.
The rally will come ahead of the Kargil War Memorial on Tuesday, the day our country celebrates Vijay Divas.
Training his guns on PDP and NC, Tarun Chug accused that the "twin families of Abdullah’s and Mufti ruled Jammu and Kashmir for the past 70 years but made it a terrorism capital."
“Mehbooba lives some yards away from here. She used to say that if you revoke (Article) 370, then you will not find hands to hoist the tricolour. I want to tell her to come to Lal Chowk and see the residents of Kashmir holding the tiranga. Every person has a tiranga in his heart,” Chug was quoted as saying by PTI.
“This is a state where a new story of development is being written. The works undertaken by Modi are speaking loud. Modi gave a sense of development, security, and belief to the people of J-K," he added.
Chug said the biker's rally was organized to pay tributes to the fallen soldiers of the Kargil War.
“These youth including the youth from different parts of the valley are going to Kargil where India’s sons sacrificed their life but did not budge even an inch of the country’s land,” he said.
Neha Joshi, national vice president, BJYM, Delhi, told PTI that she is proud to be a part of the historic event.
“This yatra has been organized by the youth of Kashmir. We have come here to become a witness of this historic event and take this message to the different corners of the country,” she said.
With Inputs from PTI
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