BJP supports ''nationalists forces'' in Jammu

New Delhi, Aug 18 (UNI) As the people of Jammu and Kashmir are afflicted by the symptom of dangerous divide over the allotment of land for creation of infrastructure for Amarnath pilgrims during the two-month-long yatra period, the BJP today threw its weight behind the the people of Jammu seeing it an essential conflict between nationalist and separatists forces.

This is not a problem of Hindus or Muslims but essentially of nationalist and separatist forces and the BJP was firmly on the side of the nationalists and appealed to them to speak up against the anti-national forces that seems to have taken over the leadership.

''They even go to the extent of raising anti-India slogans and did not mind carrying Pakistan flag,'' BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad told newspersons after a two and half hour meeting of the party office bearers.

The meeting was chaired by BJP president Rajnath Singh and was attended by party's office bearers and Leader of Opposition L K Advani.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, who has been the party's face in the Governmental effort to find a solution to the J &K crisis, briefed the office bearers on the Amarnath land controversy.

In the resolution adopted by the meeting, the BJP recounted how the decision to allot land was taken after the Division Bench of J &K High Court directed the state government to permit the land use for the convenience of Amarnath Yatris in 2005. The government headed by Farooq Abdullah had formulated the rules for creation of Shrine Board based on the report of Nitish Sengupta Committee which went into the issue and the Board was created by a resolution of the J &K Assembly on May 22, 2008.

The Congress and PDP coalition took the decision to allot 100 acres of land to the Shrine Board but ''meekly surrendered'' to the week-long protests of the sepearatists in Kashmir who carried out a disinformation campaign dubbing even the two-month-long yatra as an effort to change demography of the region, he said.

The party also decided to hold district level protests across the country where the it would court arrests. The party would also hold seminars on situation in the state across the country for which a three member panel had been appointed to oversee the campaign.

Terming the protests in Jammu as 'heroic people's protests' evincing participation from all sections and communities of the region to protest against discrimination over the years, he said the the agitation started by Amarnath Sanghash Samiti was completely democratic and patriotic for 38 long days. The state government chose to surrender to the week-long protests, choosing to ignore the protests in Jammu, he alleged.

Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and the Centre should tell Pakistan in clear terms that India would not brook any interference in its internal matters.

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