D. Raja pulls up BJP over Masarat Alam's release

Communist Party India (CPI) leader D. Raja on Monday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is a part of the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, should take responsibility for the release of separatist leader Masarat Alam and explain its stand on the issue.

"We have heard what our Prime Minister has said but the government in Jammu and Kashmir is a coalition government....The BJP cannot absolve its responsibility. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should own responsibility and explain its position," he said on Alam's release.

"They should explain what is being done in Jammu and Kashmir because they claimed there was Common Minimum Programme and the government functions according to it," he added.

Asserting that there will be no compromise on national security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day said the Central Government was neither informed nor consulted about Alam's release.

"I assure the nation that there is no compromise on the unity of the nation," PMO's twitter handle quoted Prime Minister Modi as telling the Lok Sabha.

Seeking to pacify the opposition, Prime Minister Modi said this expression of anger over Alam's release does not belong to any political party, but to the entire nation and the entire House.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, making a statement on the issue earlier , said the Centre has sought clarifications from the Jammu and Kashmir government on Alam's release.

He informed the Lower House that although 27 criminal cases are against Alam he has been granted bail in all the cases.

The Home Minister also informed the Lok Sabha that the High Court had said, 'a person cannot be detained for more than two years under the Public Safety Act'.

Leaders of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD and CPI (M) later staged a walkout after expressing displeasure with the responses of the Prime Minister and Home Minister.