“This is a provocative act,” said Technical Education, Youth Services and Sports Minister R.S. Chib, while talking to media on the sidelines of a function at Ranbirsinghpora, a border town about 30 km from Jammu.

He justified National Conference (NC) leader and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's tough action against the BJP.

Six BJP activists were arrested in Srinagar Saturday. Police have started arresting BJP activists carrying national flags or any material related to the march.

The NC and the Congress are partners in the state government.

Chib was speaking on BJP's “Rashtriya Ekta Yatra” which is scheduled to enter Jammu and Kashmir Monday and unfurl the national flag in Srinagar.

“The BJP's yatra will provoke the people in Kashmir and that can deteriorate the situation in the Valley,” Chib said. Chib's party and Cabinet colleague, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma too lashed out at the BJP for its plan. He said that this was a “political stunt.”

Kashmiri separatists have given a call to foil the plans of the BJP. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front has given a call for “Lal Chowk chalo” (march to Lal Chowk) to show “Kashmiris' anger against the (BJP) yatra.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday asked all political parties to refrain from “promoting divisive agendas” and stressed that peace should not be disturbed in the “sensitive” Jammu and Kashmir.

“It is not an occasion to score political points, to embarrass the state and local administrations, to create situations that could lead to entirely avoidable problems, or to promote divisive agendas,” Manmohan Singh said while stressing that Republic Day is “a solemn occasion.” “It is my hope that all our citizens and political parties will heed this call and will do nothing that will disturb peace and harmony, or detract in any way from the dignity of Republic Day,” the prime minister said.

It was “all the more important to observe maximum restraint particularly in a sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir,” Singh said. It was a veiled reference to the planned BJP march.

Unfazed by pleas by the Jammu and Kashmir government, which has made it clear that it will not allow hoisting of the national flag by BJP on that day, the party is going ahead with the plan.

Stressing the significance and solemnity of the occasion, the prime minister said: “It is up to the states to ensure that public traditions are honored and they would be well within their rights to insist upon punctilious adherence.”

“It is a day that joins all Indians in a shared celebration of modern nationhood,” he said.