It was on June 7, 1952, the ‘State Flag’ was adopted in the Constituent Assembly of Jammu Kashmir. It was for the first time that day was officially celebrated as the ‘State Flag Day’ every year thereafter. For every year after that, the State flag has always been there as ‘DOOSRA NISHAAN’. Even on June 7, 2019, this State Flag was there.
But on August 5, 2019, constitutional amendments were introduced and the State Flag became a relic of the past. So it will be for the first time in 2020 on June 7 that the State Flag will not be found anywhere on any buildings or any vehicles.
Under Article 370, Jammu Kashmir had its own flag, which was red in colour with three equidistant white vertical stripes and a white plough. The three stripes represented the state’s three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
In 1952, an agreement was reached between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah in the context of Jammu & Kashmir State Flag. Although Jammu Kashmir acceded to India in October 1947, negotiations on the status of the State with regard to India continued well into 1952. However, a meeting between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, the founder of the National Conference, led to the drafting of an agreement which defined the contours of J&K’s autonomy.
It is quoted as follows: “The Union Government agreed that the State should have its own flag in addition to the Union flag, but the State Government agreed that the State flag would not be a rival of the Union flag; it was also recognised that the Union flag should have the same status and position in Jammu and Kashmir as in the rest of India, but for historical reasons connected with the freedom struggle in the State, the need for continuance of the State flag was recognised”.
The agreement provided that J&K’s flag could fly side-by-side with the Tricolour. Interestingly, experts claim that there is no signed document of the Delhi Agreement available anywhere.
In 1956, J&K adopted a separate State constitution, under which it was permitted to fly its own flag. As quoted in the Jammu & Kashmir Constituent Assembly official report, Assembly debate, part 1, first volume (1951-1955), Sheikh Mohd Abdullah moved the resolution to adopt a separate flag for J&K, “Resolve that the National Flag of the Jammu & Kashmir State shall be rectangular in shape and red in colour with three equidistant vertical strips of equal width next to the staff and a white plough in the middle with its handle facing the strips. The ratio of width to the length of flag shall be 2:3”.
On May 8, 1953, Shayam Prasad Mookerjee left for Jammu Kashmir to take the Praja Parishad movement forward. But he was arrested by Sheikh Abdullah’s Government in Kathua on May 11, 1953. After 44 days of his arrest, on June 23 Mookerjee died in Srinagar under mysterious circumstances.
He always believed that Article 370 was harmful to the country’s integrity, as explained by him in a letter he wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1953.
On August 5, Narendra Modi-led Central Government amended Article 370 provisions in the Constitution which granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir for residency and government jobs. Parliament approved the resolution in this regard and also passed the bill on the bifurcation of the State into two Union Territories.