Sushma, Jaitley and Ananth Kumar arrested at Lakhanpur
The stand-off between the BJP and the Jammu and Kashmir government ended on Tuesday evening with the arrest here of the party's top leaders along with 500 workers, who tried to move towards Jammu on their way to Srinagar to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk on Republic Day.
As soon as the BJP workers, led by Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Anurag Thakur, crossed the Punjab-J&K border, heavy contingents of police arrested them. Holding the tricolour, the workers shouted slogans.
The leaders were taken to Kathua, where they would be kept under detention till Wednesday evening, police sources told The Hindu. The workers were shifted to the police training school and police lines at Kathua. The police booked all leaders under Section 188 of the Ranbir Penal Code. They would be produced before a magistrate on Wednesday for release.
The police allowed the arrested leaders to talk to journalists. Both Ms. Swaraj and Mr. Jaitley lambasted the State and Central governments for stopping them from performing their “constitutional duty.”
Mr Jaitley said the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha was determined to go ahead with its flag hoisting plan. It was a “panic reaction” by the government and “psychological surrender before separatists.”
Ms. Swaraj expressed her dismay at the way the State government treated them. “What can be more unfortunate that those who burn the national flag are being provided security while those holding the national flag are being stopped?”
“It was peaceful”
“What is our crime? Why are we being arrested? We have been marching peacefully,” she said, adding that throughout its journey in 11 States the Ekta Yatra was peaceful. But “still we have been arrested to please the separatists.”
Earlier, hundreds of BJP workers marched from the Madhopur side of Punjab to enter this State. All the top leaders were atop a ‘rath' specially designed for the yatra, which began from Kolkata on January 12.
Keywords: Flag hoisting programme, Ekta Yatra, BJP-J&K standoff, Lal Chowk
They are trying to divert present issues against them...
Why this drama by BJP? Why they want to break the fragile nature of peace in india? Why do they need custom made raths to show their patriotism?? Isn't it a publicity stunt to raise their TRP?
I think we the Indian citizens have had enough of these useless means of appeasement , like the one now being presented by the BJP in the form of ekta yatra.These yatras are older concepts dating back to Gandhinian era,now its high time to take severe steps in order to protect the democratic nature of the nation.And none of our very own elected leaders seem to be taking any sincere initiative to eradicate any of the points in the Indian eternal problem list.
This is something unethical move by the BJP. They should try to win the hearts of the Kashmiri people rather than forcing them to accept the hoist of the tricolour. Kashmiris had always been facing the sufferings and problems for years.. unemployment, poverty, army and police deployed everywhere.. killing of innocent civilians and rape. Due to this they haven't felt the country really cares for them.
So J&K is not part of India. Then declare it as seperate nation. Why wasting money on things that doesn't work. Old goodies should retire and leave India to youngster.
Even though the march for hoisting national flag smacked of political theatre , BJP has handled it well and kept it peaceful and dignified.
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