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| BJP top brass 'pushed out' of J&K, deported to Madhopur Local leaders, workers arrested amid escalated tension | | Standoff continues as party firm on rally, yatra plans | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Jan 24: In a situation seen as one with government and BJP daggers drawn towards each other, the standoff continues amid hard posturing by both resulting in escalation of tension in the winter capital.Firm on its stand, the NC led coalition government pushed out the top brass of BJP from the state late Monday evening after detaining them at the Jammu airport for the entire day. The three top leaders Arun Jaitely, Sushma Swaraj and Anant Kumar were taken out of the technical airport amid high police escort along with senior functionaries of the administration and driven straight out of the state in separate vehicles and deported to Madhopur town in Punjab. Adamant on its programme, the BJP is going ahead with its scheduled rally tomorrow morning that will be preceded by a peace march.
The day long turn of events inside and outside the Jammu airport finally saw the three senior leaders literally pushed out of the state by the government which feared trouble with the presence of these leaders during the scheduled rally at Parade Ground tomorrow. The step was in fact taken to prevent the three senior leaders from moving out of Jammu airport to join the Rashtriya Ekta Yatra of the party's youth wing.Soon after they arrived in the afternoon, the leaders were stopped by a magistrate and senior police officials at the airport and barred from moving out.
The high drama continued as the national leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar sat down on the airport tarmac after police barred them from entering the city. Tension gripped the area as hundred of BJP workers and leaders led by veterans like Prof Chaman Lal Gupta and Ashok Khajuria staged demonstration lodging strong protest over 'detention' of their leaders inside the airport. Amid high pitched slogans and protests the police arrested all the BJP workers and leaders protesting outside Jammu airport, including leader of the opposition Prof Chaman Lal Gupta. The police first removed BJP workers and thereafter physically lifted Prof Chaman Lal Gupta and MLA Ashok Khajuria. They were taken from the airport to an undisclosed destination in police vehicles. The two leaders along with scores of workers have been taken into preventive custody and were not released till late night.
Even as the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah remained busy interacting with his officers at the airport and evensent his team of officials to prevail upon the three BJP leaders to return to Delhi by the special aircraft in which they had come to Jammu , the top brass of BJP refused to go back. They instead held sit in dharna at the tarmac for hours, not even paying heed to the call of the Home Minister P Chidambaram who asked them to respect the decision of the state government. The action of the state government in stopping the three senior leaders of the party evoked spontaneous and sharp reactions from the party at the national level who accused centre for this 'uncalled for' step.
"This has been done at the behest of the central government led by Congress which wants to take up confrontation with BJP………..it was a confrontation between separatist and patriots but Congress has converted it into party conflict with a design", alleged Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of BJP. Stating that it was an emergency like situation, the BJP stalwart said Congress had done it with a motive of creating tension across the country as they want to divert the attention of masses from series of corruption scandals it is faced with.
"Our three leaders cannot enter the city (Jammu). Leaders of opposition of the two houses (of parliament) are there. It is an unfortunate thing to take place in independent India. BJP condemns rampant use of state power," Prasad said.
"It is our allegation that all this is happening because of government of India and Congress party," he said, adding that Congress party was a partner in the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Protesting against the state government's actions, the BJP leaders sat on a dharna inside the airport while outside, party activists raised slogans against Omar Abdullah government and blocked the road next to the building.
Slamming the state government, Anant Kumar claimed that as soon as they landed the district magistrate asked them to go back but they refused.
"It is a draconian situation here. They have almost formed an Emergency-like situation. We will not accept this order as we are free citizens of India and entitled to land in Jammu," Kumar said, adding the three of them were sitting on a dharna on the tarmac.
"This is an outrageous act by the Omar Abdullah government which has detained our leaders at the airport. This is a picture akin to the Emergency days," state BJP spokesman Jitender Singh told reporters. "They (authorities) are furthering the agenda of the separatists and undermining the nationalist element," he said.
He alleged that 23 BJP activists have been arrested and administration and police were harassing the pilgrims who were going to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at a railway station after labelling them as BJP workers.
The Opposition party has accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Omar Abdullah government of "surrendering" to separatists and showing "disproportionate and panic reaction".
BJP president Nitin Gadkari, now on a visit to China, on Monday criticised the 'repressive approach of the central and state governments' towards a march being taken out to unfurl the national flag at Srinagar on Republic Day.
Gadkari congratulated the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), activists for a peaceful yet effective demonstration of the nationalist spirit and condemned the 'repressive approach of the central and state government'.
Gadkari had flagged off the march from Kolkata on Jan 12. BJYM, led by its president Anurag Thakur, plans to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk on Jan 26, for which it is taking out a Rashtriya Ekta yatra (national unity march).
'Secessionist elements in the valley will be the happiest lot Jan 26 while those who want to hoist flag in their own motherland will be put behind the bars.
'Now that the government has sent out a horrifyingly wrong signal to the secessionists by refusing the yatra (march) to move ahead, BJP is afraid that this will further boost the anti-nationalist's morale. The government has always played to the gallery on this issue and if this trend continues; terrorism may raise its ugly head once again,' he said.
Meanwhile, the local leaders of BJP strongly condemned the stopping and illegal detention of national leaders at Jammu Airport. Such attitude of the government is not only objectionable but shameful, said BJP State Spokesperson Ramesh Arora .
Arora also condemned arrest of number of workers and leaders of state unit outside the Airport demonstrating in a peaceful manner against the unanthorized detention of senior leaders. Especially when senior leaders like Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, Ashok Khajuria, Adarsh Kumar, Sanjay Baru, Maggar Singh, Vikas Sharma and many other BJYM activists and senior leaders were taken into custody.
Arora said Omar Abdullah should be sacked immediately as he has proved total failure during his term as Chief Minister. The programme was meant to hoist tri-colour flag at Lal Chowk to boost the morale of nationalist forces and demoralize the separatist. This action of the government will prove as counter productive as it will give undue weightage to separatist and anti-national.
Meanwhile, Official sources said that the situation in the entire state, particularly in Jammu and Srinagar, has become quite tense with more BJYM activists reaching Jammu secretly and some separatist leaders, including the JKLF Chief,Mohd.Yasin Malik,have gone underground in the state's summer capital.
Reports said that the Government agencies are worried as they fear that some BJYM activists may succeed in sneaking into Srinagar for hoisting the tricolour on one hand and on the other Malik and his associates managing to unfurl green and black flags somewhere around Lal chowk.
A senior police officer said that it is almost a flag war in Jammu and Kashmir with the BJYM activists determined to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk and the separatists reluctant on abandoning their proamme of unfurling black and green flags in Kashmir on the Republic Day.
He said that the security forces have been directed to remove green or black flags wherever they find them hoisted on roof tops or on electric poles. He said that the Government has reports that activists belonging to the JKLF and other separatist groups plan to hoist black and green flags during the night of January25-26 and in this connection the security forces have been asked to remove these black flags during the night itself so that on the Republic Day not a single black flag was visible anywhere. |
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