Yatra stopped to appease separatists: Jaitley

“Today,a question is raking up in everybody’s mind across the country as to what could be the objection to the hoisting of the national flag on the Republic Day,” he said,describing all actions by the Central and state governments to stop them as “psychological and ideological surrender to the separatists”.

Terming this as the first such incident since independence,Jaitley argued that the Article 144 of the CrPC nowhere says that holding the Tricolour is an offence. He added that to stop the yatra,both the UPA government at the Centre and Omar Abdullah government in the state had to resort to unconstitutional and illegal tactics. The trains carrying party workers were diverted and their chartered plane was not allowed to fly back to Delhi without them,he said. “The matter has not ended,the Railway and Home ministries will have to answer as to who had ordered it,” he added.

He criticised the Omar Abdullah government for detaining him,along with Sushma Swaraj and Anant Kumar,at the Jammu airport for six hours and deporting them to Punjab around midnight. Pointing out that they had “suffered the misfortune of being abducted by the state”,he questioned the state government whether there was any space for Opposition politics in the state. “The only document given to us on landing at the airport read that the state government cannot provide us security in view of situation prevailing in the state,” Jaitley said.

Sushma Swaraj,the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha,regretted that this Republic Day has been the first in country’s history when leaders of Opposition were detained for holding the Tricolour. She slammed Omar Abdullah for his invitation to join official Republic Day function at Srinagar,asking him whether he was unaware that they were under detention. “Our invitation to you is that you (Omar) join us in unfurling the national flag at Lal Chowk,” she said.

Earlier,the BJP leaders after their release from police custody in Kathua hoisted the Tricolour at Mukherjee Chowk there. Former Himachal chief minister Shanta Kumar,former Union minister Anant Kumar,party’s youth wing president Anurag Thakur were also present. Thereafter,Thakur,along with 500 workers,went to Madhopur to hoist the Tricolour,while Jaitley,Swaraj and other leaders went to Jammu.