PDP tears into BJP: ‘They love to weaponise Kashmiri Pandits’ pain’

Referring to the killing of revenue department official Rahul Bhat, a Pandit, in central Kashmir’s Budgam district last month and the subsequent protests it triggered, the PDP said in an article in its monthly newsletter Speak Up on Tuesday, “And although they love to weaponise the pain of the Kashmiri Pandits when it comes to BJP’s own agenda, Kashmiri Pandits get teargassed by the police for protesting the killing of Rahul Bhat. Our party president, Mehbooba Mufti, was put under house arrest when she tried to visit the Pandits … Fringe elements have replaced the mainstream that has been criminalised for its belief in the Constitution.”

The article, titled The Saffron Trojan Horse, labelled the nationalism espoused by the BJP as a “Trojan Horse” and said Kashmiris would “not embrace what they (BJP) force upon us” and would “rise to fight back”.

The PDP’s rivals have accused the party of bringing the BJP to the doorsteps in the Kashmir Valley. The two parties ran a coalition government from 2015 to 2018. Since they parted ways, and the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status in 2019, the party has been one of the BJP’s bitterest critics.

The PDP also accused the BJP of “disempowering” the people of Jammu and Kashmir and engineering “demographic changes”. It questioned the narrative of peace in the erstwhile state. Despite the “BJP’s tall claims of peace and normalcy, the spate of killings continues”, it said.

Responding to its former ally’s allegations, the BJP’s Kashmir media in-charge Manzoor Ahmad Bhat said, “When in government, the BJP is nationalist for them and when out of power we are not good for them. This is their frustration, whether the NC (National Conference) or the PDP. They can say anything.”