NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday demanded that sedition charges be slapped on separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for his "anti-national" views on the Kashmir issue, including demand for self-determination and demilitarisation.

Addressing a press conference here, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said Mr. Geelani's public demand on self-determination and demilitarisation was extremely provocative and an outright anti-national statement. "We would like to ask the State Government as well as the Union Government why sedition charges have not been slapped against him the way they had been put up against our party leaders," Mr. Prasad said.

He was referring to the sedition case registered by the Jammu and Kashmir police against senior BJP leaders, Vinay Katiyar and Sahib Singh Verma, for allegedly announcing a bounty for killing militants in the restive State, a charge they had denied.

Mr. Prasad said Mr. Geelani's statement could not be viewed in isolation but was directly related to a highly permissive atmosphere created by the United Progressive Alliance Government (UPA) through its ambiguous policies towards terrorists and separatists.

He claimed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had repeatedly been "snubbed" by the Hurriyat Conference leaders for his invitation to talks but the drama continued to take place. "So long as issues of security are influenced by alien considerations, as is being done by the UPA Government, elements like Mr. Geelani will continue to get emboldened," he added.

He said the BJP strongly deprecated the issue of deployment of forces being politicised.

"Deployment or re-deployment of forces must be viewed only in professional terms depending upon the threat perception. No political party or group ought to be permitted to dictate terms on issues of national security. The larger issue remains why such a chorus starts whenever security forces get an upper hand," he said.

"Clarify stance"

He said the BJP demanded that the entire nation be taken into confidence on what was going on in the name of a dialogue in Kashmir.

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