Arrested, tweeted Sushma, then deposited in Punjab

Jammu: As she was led away from the Jammu airport where she had been detained for several hours, Sushma Swaraj tweeted, "Arrested - cars - separate - dont know where to?" The answer became clearer as a police convoy  zipped down a highway - she was being taken to Madhopur on the Punjab border. Here, Ms Swaraj and Arun Jaitley held a rally on Tuesday morning - before attempting to cross, along with thousands of BJP youth activists - back into J&K.

After their arrest last night at the Jammu airport, BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were forcibly escorted out of Jammu. Ms Swaraj was in one car; Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar were in two others. The leaders had been arrested after a political drama at the Jammu airport.  After they landed in a chartered plane, they were told they could not leave the airport.  

The BJP trio was kept waiting first on the tarmac, and then at a lounge at the airport. The message from the local administration was reiterated in a phone call by Home Minister P Chidambaram - that the leaders should return to Delhi because there was no question of them being allowed to proceed for their rally in Jammu. (Read: Chidambaram's statement on BJP yatra) That was meant to be a major pit stop as the BJP Ekta Yatra headed to Srinagar - the plan was to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk on Republic Day. The separatists have announced a counter-march to Lal Chowk. The state government has said it will not allow any move that could deliberately or inadvertently disturb the fragile peace in the Valley.

But the BJP says it will not surrender its agenda. The party says it has ordered its workers to keep the peace at all costs. But it says it has to unfurl the flag at Lal Chowk to send a clear message to the separatists- that Kashmir is an integral part of India. It is here in 1948 that  Jawaharlal Nehru promised Kashmir a plebiscite - the basis of separatist discourse.
The convoy that the BJP leaders were bundled into was carefully filmed - video cameras in each of the leader's cars placed their movements on record till they were deposited in Punjab. The BJP claims that its leaders were persuaded to get into waiting cars because they were told they were being taken to a government guest house in Jammu.  "Section 144 cannot be used to deport anyone from a state...I don't know whether there is any rule of law left in the country. There is no power, no law that says you can physically throw people out of the state. There has to be some power under a law which this government doesn't have. The morcha will proceed ahead. The party will decide to take action. The party will go ahead with the rally," said Mr Jaitley.

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