Lal Chowk or Red Square is of momentous importance to Kashmir’s essence and the spot is vital and vicious for its past as history bears testimony to historical developments, including speeches by political stalwarts of pre and post independence era. The nomenclature itself is on the tongue of natives who name it as a spot to be there on any given period. Srinagar is synonymous with this space for its name is linked to Kashmiris identity and reality. It was here that the first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and National Conference founder Sheikh Abdullah held hands together and addressed people of Kashmir. Every political figure has yearned to be present for his or her activity since the mere presence of any party or group assumes larger than picture dimensions in discourse having ramification on the rest of Kashmir. This struggle to attract attention saw tug of war between rival political groups for one-upmanship at the heart of a city named after Red Square of Moscow at a time when Communist movement was at its zenith and had influenced the rest of the world including Kashmir. It was till 1990 that there were hectic activities and rallies at Lal Chowk but after militancy erupted there was complete halt to such scenes and in this backdrop, Bharatiya Janata Party which was marking its presence all over the country decided to send leaders who would hoist the National Flag at the Clock Tower which saw all militant organizations unifying to stop Murli Manohar Joshi and Narendra Modi to hoist tricolor here. Prime Minister Modi was a senior party functionary in 1992 and accompanied Joshi for the ceremony. Thereafter separatists did attempt to raise other flags as mark of supremacy during 30 years till January 26, 2022 when scores of youth under various NGOs organized flag hoisting ceremony. According to Sajid Yousuf Shah and Sahil Bashir Bhat who spearheaded the campaign amid security, it was only possible after abrogation of Art 370. Astonished to see this happening, former chief minister Omar Abdullah as customary took to twitter for moot criticism and to prove his nationalistic credentials by questioning that the presence of tricolor didn’t last for a day at Lal Chowk. A classic case of pot calling the kettle black as pertinently it was him as the chief minister in 2010 when he had to manage his presence at the Nimaz-e-Jinazah of revered editor of Urdu daily, Khawaja Sanullah Bhat as Kashmir was in turmoil following killing of more than 100 youth in protests. The criticism for the sake of politics disparages the space in which politicians have to delve and deliberate and doesn’t behoove of a party which takes pride in total assimilation of regional polity into the mainstream.