Shiv Sena backs RSS chief's 'no need to find Shiv Ling in every mosque' comment

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Friday supported RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's comment that there was no need to find a 'Shiv Ling' in every mosque and start a new dispute every day, and added that the focus should be instead on how to save the lives of Kashmiri Pandits.

In a searing attack on the BJP-led Union government, Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut also said that in view of Kashmiri Pandits once again fleeing from the Valley, "Kashmir Files 2" should be made to show who is responsible for their current plight.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had supported the film "The Kashmir Files" which helped its producer earn Rs 400-500 crore, but the situation of Kashmiri Pandits did not change, he said.

"I support his (Bhagwat's) statement. This daily chaos should end or else it will hurt the country. Instead of looking for a Shiv Ling, we should think of how we can save the lives of Kashmiris....how the lives of Kashmiri Pandits can be saved," he said.

On Thursday, Bhagwat had said the Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute in Varanasi involved some issues of faith and the court's decision on it should be accepted by all, but also there was no need to find a `Shiv Ling' in every mosque and start a new dispute every day.

Raut, meanwhile, dubbed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as "really serious", noting that Union Home minister Amit Shah held an emergency meeting with Lt Governor Manoj Sinha over the developments.

The government is making efforts, but the situation is returning to what it was in 1990 when Kashmiri Pandits fled the Valley en masse, the Shiv Sena MP said.

Vijay Kumar, a 29-year-old bank manager from Rajasthan, was shot dead by a terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba organization inside his office in South Kashmir's Kulgam district on Thursday, making it the eighth targeted killing in the Kashmir Valley since May 1 and the third of a non-Muslim government employee.

The BJP got votes by promising resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, but despite the scrapping of the Article 370, there was no change in the situation on the ground, Raut claimed.

Kashmiri Pandits were being targeted and killed and the government is not taking any steps to provide security, he alleged.

Had there been a government of any other party, the BJP would have made it a big issue, Raut said.

"But the Prime minister, the Home Minister and the administration in Kashmir belong to you (the BJP) but still Kashmiri Pandits are being killed," he said.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Shah, demanding that security should be provided to Hindus and migrants in the Kashmir Valley.