The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of 'psychologically surrendering' to Kashmir separatists by describing the party's decision to hoist the national flag in Srinagar as 'divisive'.
Addressing media persons here, BJP senior leader Arun Jaitley said: "When two people speak in New Delhi about the segregation of the (Jammu and Kashmir) territory, it passes off as a right to free expression. But when as an assertion of India's sovereignty, the national flag is sought to be hoisted in Srinagar, it is dubbed as divisive."
Describing the Prime Minister's stand as 'unacceptable', Mr Jaitley wondered how could the hoisting of the national flag be 'divisive and provocative'.
On union finance minister Pranab Mukharjee's comparing the stalling of parliament by the opposition with the Maoists, Mr Jaitley suggested that the minister be more restrained in his utterances.
Obstructing parliamentary procedures in a 'rarest of rare' situation was part of parliamentary functioning, Mr Jaitley claimed.
He said the Congress too had resorted to similar obstruction when the party was in the opposition and 'we never compared it with Maoists'.
The BJP leader slammed the Jammu and Kashmir government and the centre for unleashing a reign of repression on the workers of the party's youth wing, which is on its 'yatra' (march) to Srinagar to hoist the national flag on Republic Day.
The 'disproportionate reaction' from the state and the central governments pointed to the 'state of panic' they were in, Jaitley said describing it as 'unconstitutional and undemocratic'.
He said it was every citizen's right to hoist the national flag on Republic Day and no power can stop it.
On Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's expected arrival in Delhi, Jaitley said the chief minister will meet senior party leaders including himself (Jaitley).