Accusing the chief minister Omar Abdullah of “siding with the separatists with his insolent statements vis-à-vis tricolour”, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) on Friday continued to maintain its defiant stance of “no change in the plan” of flag hoisting at Lal Chowk on Republic Day, however, the former (Omar) reiterated that no one would be allowed “to vitiate the atmosphere and the separatists also fall under this purview.”
On a day of politically boisterous developments in the winter capital following the state government’s decision to not to allow “Ekta Yatra”, the chief minister preferred to just reiterate his earlier stand and appealed the BJP not to play flag politics over Kashmir. The BJYM and National Conference leaders exchanged vitriolic remarks in two separate press conferences.
“If the Yatra is stopped anywhere, those who stop us will be stopped. Notwithstanding the decision of state government, we’ll march towards Lal Chowk, where national flag was disrespected during the 2010 summer agitation. We want to restore its sanctity at the same venue. Omar has taken oath under this national flag. And now he is disrespecting it. He should better resign. We invite him as well as Prime Minister to come and take part in this movement. It is hoisting of the national flag and not the BJP party flag,” mocked BJYM general secretary Nitin Naveen while reacting to the government decision in a press conference. He also criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union home minister P. Chidambaram for, what he alleged, “allowing Omar to stop hoisting tricolour at Lal Chowk.”
On the other hand, senior NC leader and minister for law and parliamentary affairs Ali Mohammed Sagar in a separate press conference charged the BJP with politicising the flag-hoisting issue, claiming that it was an attempt to derail the peace process in J&K.
He scoffed at the top BJP leadership stating, “Advaniji is not fighting with the separatists. We are fighting with the separatists. He is sitting in Delhi and talking about separatists. We are fighting with them for the last 20 years.”
Meanwhile, the chief minister, while talking to media on the sidelines of a book release function in a question related to stressed out forces, stated, “Republic Day is a sensitive day to deal with vis-à-vis security arrangements as the forces are already stressed out here. In the wake of this, we obviously don’t get to decide the circumstances that we govern under. I would have preferred not to have had this as an additional headache to already the headache of dealing with January 26 which since 1990 has been a problematic day. Anyway, we’re well prepared to take on any eventuality unfolding on the day.”