New Delhi: Lashing out at BJP for its plan to
hoist the national flag in Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic
Day, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday said the main
opposition party was trying to hide its failures in the garb
of nationalism.
"Just being in BJP does not give you certificate of being
a nationalist. After failing to mislead the nation on the
issue of JPC to go into the 2G scam, BJP has now come up with
the idea of hoisting the flag at Lal Chowk," the former Chief
Minister told reporters here.
"This (BJP) is a party which wants to destroy India and
doesn`t want to strengthen it. They want to start new
disputes. We want to improve the situation but they want to
disturb that situation," he said on the sidelines of the
National Conference on Green Design: Buildings and Habitats.
He wondered what point BJP would prove by hoisting the
flag at Lal chowk when the same was done by Jawans of the
CRPF. "This party is trying to hide its own failures in the
garb of nationalism," he said.
Abdullah recalled that the then BJP President Murli
Manohar Joshi had organised a similar flag hoisting in 1991.
"How did it help? Did India become strong by this or was
weakened. And the flag was hoisted at midnight with a strong
contingent of Army guarding him," Abdullah asked.
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha has announced `Ekta Yatra`
from Kolkata on January 12, which will culminate at Lal Chowk
with the flag hoisting on January 26. Kolkata has been chosen
because it is the birth place of party founder Shyama Prasad
Mukherjee, who died in Kashmir in 1953.
The New and Renewable Energy Minister said there was no
need for the BJP to hoist the flag as the state Chief Minister
himself hoists the national flag at the Bakshi stadium in
Srinagar during national festivals.
"Every Army, police and BSF camp does so. Then what is
the need for them to do it? Is the flag hoisted by us not the
national flag? Are we not not the citizens of India? Are they
only the citizens of India," he posed.
He said the main opposition party should shun the path
of playing divisive policies and work towards strengthening
the nation.
PTI
