New Delhi, August 1
The BJP here appeared to be heeding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s appeal to help in bringing down the temperature in Jammu on the Amarnath transfer of land issue.

The Prime Minister had invited Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani here on Thursday “to discuss the current security environment in the country”, according to BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The meeting was also attended by home minister Shivraj Patil, defence minister A.K. Antony and national security adviser M.K. Narayanan.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley accompanied Advani to this meeting. Incidentally, this was one of the rare occasions when Leader of the Opposition had a special meeting with the Prime Minister and even rarer for the Prime Minister to invite him.

Meanwhile, BJP sources claimed that the situation was serious in Jammu and that a large crowd of protesters collected outside the Jammu airport as soon as the news about the arrival of National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti broke.

Jaitley’s confidant and BJP secretary R.P. Singh organised a press conference demanding restitution of the land acquired by the Amarnath Trust around the site to provide temporary residence to the pilgrims.