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, according to sources, is Madhopur on the Punjab border.
The three BJP leaders - Ms Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar - were all being forcibly escorted away from Jammu hours after their chartered flight touched down at the airport. Video cameras were reported to be filming each of them so that their movements would be on record.
As the BJP leaders reached the J&K-Punjab border, a large contingent of BJP workers greeted them.
Strongly condemning the arrest, Arun Jaitley after reaching Madhopur called the action illegal, unconstitutional and undemocratic.
"Section 144 cannot be used to deport anyone from a state...We will march to Jammu and Kashmir with the youth leaders," said Jaitley. (
Watch)
This is the climax of a political drama which pits the BJP and its contentious Ekta Yatra against the government in Jammu and Kashmir, and at the Centre.
The BJP deployed its trio of senior leaders to up the ante ahead of their Jammu rally, scheduled to be held tomorrow. The Jammu gathering was meant to be a major pit stop to energize the thousands of youth activists who are heading from Punjab to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with a one-point agenda: to unfurl the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day.
The separatists have announced a counter-march and the state government says it will not tolerate any move that could strain the fragile peace in the region.
Lal Chowk is where, in 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru promised Kashmir a plebiscite - the basis of separatist discourse.
The BJP says that by hoisting the flag at Lal Chowk, it wants to make the point to separatists that Kashmir is an integral part of India.
Thousands of BJP youth workers are heading to the entry point into J&K - Lakhanpur on the border with Punjab. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has made it clear that large groups of BJP workers will be turned away.
Repeatedly, the BJP has said that it has instructed its ranks to do nothing that could shatter the peace. Earlier this evening, veteran leader LK Advani formally complained to the Prime Minister about Mr Jaitley and Ms Swaraj being trapped at the airport.
"I talked to the Prime Minister to register protest over the way 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," Advani told PTI.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said, shortly after 6 pm, that he had phoned Mr. Jaitley and told him that the BJP leader "had made his point" and that he should return to Delhi. The Home Minister also stressed that a public meeting was "not possible." The BJP leaders responded that they should be arrested - but that barring them from entering the city of Jammu was illegal.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister issued a statement which did not name the BJP, but stressed that the Republic Day "is not an occasion to score political points, to embarrass state and local administrations, to create situations that could lead to entirely avoidable problems, or to promote divisive agendas." (
Read: Don't promote divisive agendas, says PM)
As it tries to make its way into J&K, the BJP has run into severe criticism from one of its key allies - Nitish Kumar. "Given the kind of tension prevailing in the valley, this Yatra has no meaning and I don't support this," said the Bihar chief minister. (
Read: Nitish slams ally BJP over rally for Kashmir)