New Delhi, January 25: Amid high drama, BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar were stopped at Jammu airport today and not allowed to enter the city to participate in a massive rally planned in Jammu tomorrow, triggering vehement protests.
The three leaders, who arrived here to throw their weight behind the party”s controversial Ekta Yatra, were asked to return to Delhi which they refused as hundreds of BJP workers outside the airport shouted slogans and waved flags.
The BJP is in no mood to back off from its decision to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day at the end of the Ekta Yatra.
Both the Centre and the Omar Abdullah government have asked the BJP not to precipitate the situation in the state. Rejecting it, BJP charged them with “surrendering” to separatists who have vowed not to allow the tricolour to be hoisted on Janaury 26 at Lal Chowk.
The leaders, who came on a chartered flight from New Delhi this afternoon, were not allowed to move out as the authorities imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc after over 1000 BJP workers assembled outside the airport to welcome them.
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.
Swaraj said the terminal gates were locked. Slamming the state government, 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.
In Delhi, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said, “This is a repressive action by the government of India. we condemn it. We will go ahead with the yatra”.
Targeting the Centre, he said “this decision could not have been that of the J&K Chief Minister alone. It has to be at the behest of the Centre”.
The BJP leaders were dispatched by the party a day after several workers of BJP”s youth wing (BJYM) were prevented from entering Jammu and Kashmir.
“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 here.
“They (authorities) are furthering the agenda of the separatists and undermining the nationalist element,” he said.
—PTI—