26 January : Republic Day 2011 turning into the detention day

Home Minister P Chidambaram called up Parliament Opposition leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj and BJP General Secretary Anant Kumar detained on Monday on arrival at the Jammu airport by a special aircraft, urging them to return to Delhi as they have made their point.

He was blunt to them that the high moral ground of hoisting the national Tricolour that their youth wing planned at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on the Republic Day should not be allowed to touch low ground of breaking law and order.

The BJP, however, reacted sharply to the orders served on its leaders under Section 144 crPC to leave Jammu and the party's veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani rang up the Prime Minister to lodge strong protest at the kind of treatment given to Jaitley and Swaraj who were the Opposition leaders.

In protest, former BJP President Rajnath Singh went on a fast at Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi at Rajghat on Monday night. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said the fast will continue till January 26 morning.

The BJP also gave a call to the party cadres to organise the protest fast and '' dharna'' at all district headquarters on Tuesday. Even during the Emergency, those taking out rallies were arrested but not treated shabbily with deportation as in Jammu as if they were entering some foreign country, Prasad said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Government sealed all entry points in the state after it failed to get support from the neighboring Punjab Government and Himachal Government whose borders meet with the state to halt the " Ekta March." The Himachal Government is ruled by the BJP while Punjab is governed by the Akali Dal- BJP coalition and so it was natural for them to refuse requests of the J& K government.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had deputed his home secretary and the state police chief to talk to BJP leaders at the airport to find a meeting ground. They remained adamant to address a public rally in Jammu before they fly back by the chartered flight by which they came from Delhi.