NEW DELHI: Even as Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah insisted that the BJP’s Rashtriya Ekta Yatra will not be allowed into the Kashmir valley, the BJP has asserted that it will go ahead with the programme of hoisting the National Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on January 26. The party, however, has made it clear that the yatra will remain peaceful. The BJP has decided to field senior leaders to ensure smooth coordination and also to ensure that the yatra remains peaceful.
BJP general secretaries Jagat Prakash Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan will be in Lakhanpur, while Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar will be in Jammu.
The last rally of the Rashtriya Ekta Yatra is expected to be in Punjab, before it enters Jammu. According to party sources, it was odd that while those indulging in seditious talk are being defended for their right to free speech, a patriotic act like hoisting the National Tricolour is being targeted.
The party sources claimed that Omar Abdullah has ended up giving more publicity to the Ekta Yatra than the party could have possibly managed on its own.
The Rashtriya Ekta Yatra, led by BJYM president Anurag Thakur, was flagged off by BJP president Nitin Gadkari on January 12, the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand, in Kolkata, the birthplace of Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookherjee.
It will culminate in Srinagar in Kashmir, the place of martyrdom of Mookherjee, on January 26. Given the flip-flop in the Government’s policy on Kashmir, which invariably ends up appeasing the separatists, the party underlined the importance of flag-hoisting in a place like Lal Chowk.