Jammu: The BJP in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday slammed Union Minister Farooq Abdullah after he criticised the party for its plan to hoist the national flag in Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day.
"We lambast Dr Abdullah for his utterances on Rastriya Ekta Yatra and hoisting of Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar of Republic day. It has only unmasked he fickleness of his nationalism," state BJP president Shamsher Singh Manhas told reporters here.
The national flag is hoisted at every chowk and intersection of roads in the entire length and breadth of the country on this day, he said, adding that whether we are hoisting flags in most of the places in Jammu or in Srinagar what is problem?
"Such an act is neither a mark of any parochialism nor should it provoke anyone... All nationalist people in the Valley will feel encouraged by the act and their morale will get a boost," Manhas said.
The BJP leader said Abdullah should have welcomed it considering the free run that the stone pelters and their ilk had for six months in the valley, where the Omar government has totally failed to control the situation.
Abdullah had recently accused the BJP of trying to disturb the situation in Kashmir Valley by planning to hoist the national flag in Srinagar on January 26.
The youth wing of the BJP, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha has also announced an `Ekta Yatra` from Kolkata on January 12, which will culminate at Lal Chowk with the flag hoisting on Republic Day.
Kolkata has been chosen as it is the birth place of party founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who died in Kashmir in 1953.
PTI
