Intent on hoisting the tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday invited Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah to “prove his loyalty to the nation” by joining the culmination of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Rashtriya Ekta Yatra on Republic Day.
“We are free people living in a free nation and we have the right to hoist our national flag anywhere in the country. So then where is the problem with raising the tricolour in Srinagar?” BJP MP and BJYM president Anurag Thakur told a meet the press program at the Chandigarh Press Club.
He said: “Despite all his opposition to our yatra we invite Omar Abdullah to walk with us to the Lal Chowk. This would be a good opportunity for him to prove his loyalty to the country.”
Flagged off by BJP national president Nitin Gadkari from Kolkata on January 12, Mr Thakur led the 15-day Rashtriya Ekta Yatra into Chandigarh on Friday evening and is expected to cross into J&K from Punjab at the Lakhanpur Barrier on Monday.
The BJYM chief made it clear that his marchers had every intention of defying the J&K administration’s orders banning the yatra and preventing it from reaching Lal Chowk.
Charging that chief minister Omar Abdullah was bending to the will of Kashmiri separatist elements, Mr Thakur said, “Only a handful of weak people are opposing us. We will not let the separatists dictate our actions.” He added: “We are committed to pursuing our campaign peacefully and do not pose any threat to the law and order in Kashmir as is being projected by the state administration.”
The J&K government has described the BJP’s flah-hoisting plan as a mischievous bid to raise communal tension in the Valley. Notably, separatist groups have also opposed the venture.