BJP demands Geelani, Arundhati Roy’s arrest

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday demanded the arrest of separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and writer-activist Arundhati Roy, terming their remarks on Kashmir as “objectionable” and “an attack on the country’s integrity”.

“There is a perfect case against Geelani-ji and Arundhati Roy. A FIR (first information report) should be filed and they should be arrested. The language they have used is objectionable and is attack on the country’s integrity,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said here.

The government has said it will take action against Geelani over his speech advocating azadi at a seminar here last week if it finds that he had violated laws against preaching sedition.

The BJP had strongly objected to Geelani and Roy’s speech at the seminar saying that the right to free speech cannot be used to target the country.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley had said that the country was stunned that a group of separatists had got together to hold a seminar to promote sedition under the nose of the government. He said that in a democracy, the right to secede cannot be accepted in the garb of right to free speech.