BJP march to divert focus on terror cases linked to RSS: Congress

NEW DELHI - The Congress Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘Ekta Yatra’ to Srinagar was aimed at diverting attention from terror-related charges faced by people linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The Jammu and Kashmir government stopped the BJP activists’ march to maintain law and order in the state, the party said.

Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed alleged that the purpose of the march by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists to Srinagar to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk was to “hide the shame of involvement of RSS cadres in terror incidents”.

“Everybody in the country knows it was only to hide the shame of involvement in terror incidents of cadres of RSS. They wanted to give a message that they are very patriotic and hide that shame. The country is mature enough to understand this type of theatrics,” Ahmed told IANS.

Ahmed also accused the BJP leaders of trying to break rules of the constitution by their actions related to the march.

“Under the Constitution, a state has the right to maintain law and order. The state government took steps it thought were necessary so that law and order is not violated. The BJP wanted to butcher the spirit of our constitution which was promulgated on Jan 26, 1950, and they wanted to butcher the spirit of Republic Day,” he said.

Ahmed said it was “very unfortunate that the BJP leaders were putting the honour of national flag at risk for their petty considerations”.

He said Kashmir was a sensitive place and the state and central governments had been able to restore peace with great difficulty.

Ahmed added that any leader “who had played politics with national flag had been punished by people”.

“Former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi went all the way to Lal Chowk under protection of the army. He was so afraid that he placed the flag upside down. At that time, he was the third most powerful leader of the BJP. Today he is not even at number 10,” Ahmed said.

Recalling the case against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharati for flag-hoisting and speeches at a communally disturbed place in Hubli, he said she not only lost her post but has not been politically rehabilitated.

BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj had earlier in the day accused both the central and the state governments of having surrendered ideologically and psychologically to separatists in Kashmir.