New Delhi, January 24
Unhappy over the treatment meted out to party colleagues Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley at Jammu airport, senior BJP leader L K Advani today talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to lodge a protest over the developments which had “never happened” earlier. “I talked to the Prime Minister to register protest over the way the authorities prevented Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, both Leaders of Opposition in two Houses of Parliament, from entering Jammu and threatened to deport them back to Delhi,” said Advani.

On being told by the authorities that prohibitory orders under Section 144 were in force, Swaraj and Jaitley had asked them to arrest them rather than send back to Delhi, Advani said, adding that he had not called up the Prime Minister to seek any assurance but to register his protest at the treatment meted out to senior leaders of the BJP.

Meanwhile, negotiations are on between the state government and BJP leaders to hold some kind of meeting with intellectuals and also brief journalists in the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The state Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and the DGP are in touch with the BJP leaders.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said he had phoned Arun Jaitley and told him that J&K CM Omar Abdullah had turned down the request for holding a public rally. “He (Jaitley) must respect the wishes” said Chidamabaram. The Home Minister told the BJP leader that “he had made his point and should come back now”.

Chidambaram had called up Omar to take stock of the situation arising out of the arrival of BJP leaders at the Jammu airport. Meanwhile, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad has charged the Congress party and the UPA government with helping separatists in the Kashmir valley.