BJP says Govt trying to divert attention from corruption issue

BJP today charged the government with trying to divert the attention of the people from the issue of corruption by not allowing party leaders to hoist the national flag in Srinagar.

BJP on Tuesday charged the government with trying to divert the attention of the people from the issue of corruption by not allowing party leaders to hoist the national flag in Srinagar.

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"I believe the UPA government and the Jammu and Kashmir government are not giving the approval to hoist flag (at Lal Chowk in Srinagar) to create a situation which diverts the attention of the people from the issue of corruption," former BJP President Rajnath Singh, who is sitting on a hunger strike at Rajghat over the issue, said in New Delhi.

He claimed that despite restrictions, the BJP youth wing activists will abide by democratic norms to oppose the ban imposed.

He said hoisting of the national flag in Srinagar becomes all the more important against the backdrop of the statement of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that the state had only acceded to India through a treaty and not merged with it.

"Will any Indian accept this. After such a statement, shouldn't we say that Jammu and Kashmir is and will be an inseparable part of India...wherever we feel, be it Jammu or Srinagar, we can hoist the national flag," he said.

Accusing the state government of succumbing to the pressure of separatists, he said the decision to ban the entry of BJP leaders in the state will send a wrong message to the countrymen and the international community.

"This will indicate that separatists have won against nationalist forces in their own country," he said.