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Centre's approach to flag yatra will boost terrorism in J&K: Gadkari

January 24, 2011 19:11 IST
Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari, who is on a five-day visit to China, on Monday condemned the Centre's attempt to stop his party's Ekta Yatra as "repressive" and warned that such an approach would lead to increase in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Under the United Progressive Alliance regime, secessionists are enjoying royal treatment while nationalists and integrationists are being assailed simply because they have plans to unfurl the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar," he said.

Gadkari, who was visiting Guangzhou on Monday, also spoke on the phone with Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha chief Anurag Thakur who is leading the yatra, and enquired about the obstacles being raised by the Centre and state government in the onward march to Jammu and Kashmir.

"Now that the government has sent out a horrifyingly wrong signal to the secessionists by preventing the yatra to move ahead, the BJP is afraid that this will further boost the anti-nationalists' morale," said Gadkari.

Gadkari warned that the "repressive" step to stop his party's yatra would lead to increase in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. "The government has always played to the gallery on this issue and if this trend continues, terrorism may rear its ugly head once again," he said.

Gadkari had flagged off the yatra from Kolkata on January 12. 

The Jammu and Kashmir government has stepped up security with the BJP not showing any sign of going back on its plan to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk on Wednesday. Nearly 5,000 security personnel have been deployed at the border of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, which has been sealed, to prevent activists of the party's youth wing from entering the state.

Gadkari said the secessionist elements in the Valley will be the happiest lot on January 26, while those who want to hoist flag in their own motherland will be put behind bars.

The BJP chief said his party had always taken a non-confrontationist approach on the issue of integration of Jammu and Kashmir. "The BJP will not compromise at all and this Tiranga Yatra was aimed at just that," Gadkari underlined.

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