Delhi: Tiranga Yatra was a journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 1992, which ended with the flag hoisting at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Then BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi who was one of the leading members of the yatra along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ETV Bharat tried to reach out to Murli Manohar Joshi about that historic moment of his life but for health reasons, he was not available. So ETV's National Bureau Chief Rakesh Tripathi reached out to a leader who has now joined hands with Congress in 2019 but was an integral part of the 1992 "Tiranga Yatra" journey.
Bimal Bhai Shah (61), who is now the Vice President of Gujarat Congress, recalls the journey "As soon as we landed at the airport, the atmosphere started getting tensed, bullets were fired on plane as well. We left the airport amid the carcade of vehicles, under a tight security barrier."
The motive was to hoist the tricolor flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. At that time, our team included leaders like Shankarsinh Vaghela, Anandiben Patel, and Suresh Mehta. “There were vehicles of the security forces behind our vehicles. We were also accommodated in the camp of the security forces.
Bimal Bhai Shah suddenly stops as he realizes that he is now in the opposition party(Congress) and says, "Look, now I don't want to remember that time because now I am in Congress. So I don't want to get into all this and this will not be fair on me."
When asked if it was because of the security forces that Murli Manohar Joshi and you were able to hoist the flag, Bimal Bhai's voice gets louder, "No such thing, we had reached there on our own. There were terrorists around us. Tried to mess it up but they couldn't succeed.
"Today's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also in the same team..Do you remember? , Bimal Bhai Shah bursts out on this scrape - "See, it will not be right to say this. Actually, we were with them and it was our dream that we will hoist the tricolor there and we have also hoisted it. Later, programs related to our honor were held all over the country. We have an old relationship with Narendra Modi, and we will remember it. The party may be different, but we have a personal relationship. Bimal Shah pauses and says- "But now he has become a big man, what will he remember?"
