Sushma Swaraj invites Omar to hoist flag at Lal Chowk

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday came down heavily on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for arresting her and Arun Jaitley and foiling the party?s flag hoisting ceremony at Lal Chowk.

?After Emergency first Republic Day that the two leaders of houses in parliament were kept imprisoned. Our crime was to enter Jammu and Kashmir with the national flag. Jammu and Kashmir police caught us. What kind of democracy is this?? Swaraj said.

Instead of Lal Chowk, senior leaders, including Jaitley and Swaraj, along with other party activists hoisted the tricolour on occasion of Republic Day at Mukherjee Chowk in Kathua.

Earlier, the BJP rejected an offer by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to join the national flag hoisting ceremony at the Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar, even as senior leaders arrested in the state were released.

?Omar called us and asked us to join him in the official function. Didn?t he know we were caught? We rather invite him to come to Lal Chowk and unfurl the tricolour. This is not an easy situation,? said Swaraj, who is the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, Jaitley said by stopping BJP?s Ekta Yatra, the government has surrendered to separatists.

?Centre and J&K government wanted to send a message to separatists, it’s an ideological surrender to separatists,? said the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

?Is there no space for opposition in our democracy? We were driven out of the state which is abduction by the state. Is holding the national flag a crime?? he said.

BJP leaders, including Swaraj and Jaitley, had remained arrested in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday morning even as the temperatures cooled down over the party’s move to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar with a Yatra (March).

The leaders spent the night at a hotel in Kathua.

“We will go to Jammu and hold press conference there,” Swaraj said later, adding that it is a shame that the main opposition leaders had to spend the night in jail on Republic Day.

She said the Yatra has, however, ended since it was only for Jan 26.

Omar Abduallah has, however, thanked the BJP for ending their Yatra peacefully, reports said.

Vowing to hoist the tricolor at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley on Tuesday courted arrest after their rally was stopped at a bridge that connects Jammu and Kashmir with Punjab.

They were kept for the night at a hotel in Kathua.

As the leaders were intercepted again at Lakhanpur in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said she would prefer death if that is what is in store for them for hoisting the tricolour in Srinagar.

“We do not want security. Let them (terrorists) kill us,” she said, while compatriot Arun Jaitley said their detention the day before at Jammu airport and subsequent release on the border of Punjab was “illegal”.

The BJP leaders crossed the bridge in a rath (chariot) after addressing a long rally at Madhopur in Punjab.

Meanwhile, the Republic Day morning was peaceful in J&K amid a heightened security patrolling.

The Clock Tower at Lal Chowk where the BJP wanted to hoist the tricolour is fortified but life around the area goes on as usual.

A parallel march by Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) to foil BJP’s plans had earlier been announced by its chief Yasin Malik, but the leader remained untraceable, according to media reports.

To prevent BJP?s ?Ekta Yatra? from entering the state, the J&K administration had sealed seven entry points with Punjab.

About 5000 police and CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel were deployed at the border of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.