“Sedition”: BJP Slams Farooq Abdullah For Remarks On Kashmiris, Pakistan
Srinagar/New Delhi: It was one of those Saturdays in the Valley when a party meeting in Baramulla turned into the day’s biggest talking point. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah stood before workers and spoke the kind of lines that land like a stone in still water. He said the people of Jammu and Kashmir still have their identity because the neighbour keeps raising the Kashmir issue on the world stage. Without naming the country every time, he made it clear he meant Pakistan. “They are silent today because of pressure from the world. Our neighbour is constantly after them. He goes everywhere saying the Kashmir issue has not been resolved. He is protecting us; otherwise their intentions are not good,” he told the gathering.
Abdullah went further. He asked the crowd what justice they could really expect from Delhi. “Have the courage to fight, or you will be wiped out and your identity will disappear,” he said. The veteran leader, who has been chief minister three times, framed it as a warning that silence from the Centre might not last forever if the international noise dies down.
By evening the reaction was already loud. BJP leaders across Jammu and Kashmir and beyond called the remarks seditious, pro-Pakistan and an insult to the Constitution. Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Sat Sharma did not hold back. He said Abdullah could speak freely only because he lives in India. “Had you made these remarks in Pakistan, you might not have been spared,” Sharma told reporters. He demanded a public apology and added that if Abdullah continued this way, Pakistan might be a better place for him to settle.
Former state BJP chief Ravinder Raina went further. He called the statement highly condemnable and an act of treason. “How can Pakistan, an enemy country, be the protector of the people of Kashmir? Pakistan is a murderer of the people of Kashmir. Over the last 35 years, Pakistan has sought to turn Jammu and Kashmir into a graveyard and a cremation ground,” Raina said. He reminded everyone of the bloodshed, the targeted killings and the long years of violence that people in the Valley still carry in their memories.
Altaf Thakur, the party’s Jammu and Kashmir spokesperson, demanded police action. He described the remarks as seditious and anti-national. A leader who has taken an oath under the Indian Constitution, he argued, cannot question the country’s intentions towards its own people while giving political cover to Pakistan’s narrative. “Pakistan has given Kashmir nothing but terrorism, bloodshed, fear and uncertainty,” Thakur said. “Does Farooq Abdullah expect the people of Kashmir to forget this painful history and believe that Pakistan is their saviour?”
Other voices joined in. BJP MLA Yudhvir Sethi said those speaking against the nation must face sedition charges and that Abdullah must apologise. Yamini Sharma, a national council member, accused the National Conference of becoming a mouthpiece for Pakistan. She pointed to the thousands of lives lost to cross-border terrorism and said the statement deeply insulted the Constitution and the patriotic people of the region.
BJP national spokesperson RP Singh took a different angle. He told Abdullah to look across the border at the condition of Kashmiris on the other side. Kashmir is doing better here, he said, because Article 370 was abrogated and the region was fully integrated with India. Tourism numbers and economic activity, he claimed, show the difference.
The Congress, which supports the National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir, tried to strike a balance. One leader said Abdullah was free to express a personal view but stressed that India would not tolerate any interference in its internal affairs. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had not commented on his father’s words by the time most reports went out.
Abdullah’s remarks came at a workers’ convention in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The timing mattered. Political temperatures in the Union Territory remain high, and any reference to Pakistan still carries heavy weight. For the BJP, the comments crossed a clear line. Leaders repeatedly returned to the same points: Pakistan’s long record of supporting militancy, the loss of innocent lives, and the freedom of speech that exists in India but would not exist under the kind of system Abdullah seemed to praise.
Critics of the BJP’s response argued that strong political language is common in Kashmir politics and that questioning the Centre’s policies is not the same as treason. Supporters of the party’s stand insisted that praising the neighbour’s role while questioning India’s intentions crosses from criticism into something more serious, especially from a former chief minister who has sworn to uphold the Constitution.
As the day closed, the statements kept circulating. Abdullah’s words about protection and identity, the BJP’s sharp reply about sedition and history, and the familiar back-and-forth between the two sides filled news channels and social media. In a place where every political speech is measured against decades of conflict, this one landed hard. Whether it leads to formal legal action or remains a political firestorm is still unclear, but the lines drawn on Saturday were unmistakable.
The episode once again showed how quickly debates about Kashmir’s past, present and future can turn personal and charged. Abdullah spoke of courage and identity. The BJP answered with accusations of betrayal and demands for accountability. Between those two positions, the people of the Valley continue to live with the consequences of every word spoken in their name.
Sources:
NDTV, The New Indian Express, India Today, News18, Times of India, India TV, Hindustan Times, Moneycontrol, ANI reports.
“Sedition”: BJP Slams Farooq Abdullah For Remarks On Kashmiris, Pakistan
Srinagar/New Delhi: It was one of those Saturdays in the Valley when a party meeting in Baramulla turned into the day’s biggest talking point. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah stood before workers and spoke the kind of lines that land like a stone in still water. He said the people of Jammu and Kashmir still have their identity because the neighbour keeps raising the Kashmir issue on the world stage. Without naming the country every time, he made it clear he meant Pakistan. “They are silent today because of pressure from the world. Our neighbour is constantly after them. He goes everywhere saying the Kashmir issue has not been resolved. He is protecting us; otherwise their intentions are not good,” he told the gathering.
Abdullah went further. He asked the crowd what justice they could really expect from Delhi. “Have the courage to fight, or you will be wiped out and your identity will disappear,” he said. The veteran leader, who has been chief minister three times, framed it as a warning that silence from the Centre might not last forever if the international noise dies down.
By evening the reaction was already loud. BJP leaders across Jammu and Kashmir and beyond called the remarks seditious, pro-Pakistan and an insult to the Constitution. Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Sat Sharma did not hold back. He said Abdullah could speak freely only because he lives in India. “Had you made these remarks in Pakistan, you might not have been spared,” Sharma told reporters. He demanded a public apology and added that if Abdullah continued this way, Pakistan might be a better place for him to settle.
Former state BJP chief Ravinder Raina went further. He called the statement highly condemnable and an act of treason. “How can Pakistan, an enemy country, be the protector of the people of Kashmir? Pakistan is a murderer of the people of Kashmir. Over the last 35 years, Pakistan has sought to turn Jammu and Kashmir into a graveyard and a cremation ground,” Raina said. He reminded everyone of the bloodshed, the targeted killings and the long years of violence that people in the Valley still carry in their memories.
Altaf Thakur, the party’s Jammu and Kashmir spokesperson, demanded police action. He described the remarks as seditious and anti-national. A leader who has taken an oath under the Indian Constitution, he argued, cannot question the country’s intentions towards its own people while giving political cover to Pakistan’s narrative. “Pakistan has given Kashmir nothing but terrorism, bloodshed, fear and uncertainty,” Thakur said. “Does Farooq Abdullah expect the people of Kashmir to forget this painful history and believe that Pakistan is their saviour?”
Other voices joined in. BJP MLA Yudhvir Sethi said those speaking against the nation must face sedition charges and that Abdullah must apologise. Yamini Sharma, a national council member, accused the National Conference of becoming a mouthpiece for Pakistan. She pointed to the thousands of lives lost to cross-border terrorism and said the statement deeply insulted the Constitution and the patriotic people of the region.
BJP national spokesperson RP Singh took a different angle. He told Abdullah to look across the border at the condition of Kashmiris on the other side. Kashmir is doing better here, he said, because Article 370 was abrogated and the region was fully integrated with India. Tourism numbers and economic activity, he claimed, show the difference.
The Congress, which supports the National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir, tried to strike a balance. One leader said Abdullah was free to express a personal view but stressed that India would not tolerate any interference in its internal affairs. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had not commented on his father’s words by the time most reports went out.
Abdullah’s remarks came at a workers’ convention in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The timing mattered. Political temperatures in the Union Territory remain high, and any reference to Pakistan still carries heavy weight. For the BJP, the comments crossed a clear line. Leaders repeatedly returned to the same points: Pakistan’s long record of supporting militancy, the loss of innocent lives, and the freedom of speech that exists in India but would not exist under the kind of system Abdullah seemed to praise.
Critics of the BJP’s response argued that strong political language is common in Kashmir politics and that questioning the Centre’s policies is not the same as treason. Supporters of the party’s stand insisted that praising the neighbour’s role while questioning India’s intentions crosses from criticism into something more serious, especially from a former chief minister who has sworn to uphold the Constitution.
As the day closed, the statements kept circulating. Abdullah’s words about protection and identity, the BJP’s sharp reply about sedition and history, and the familiar back-and-forth between the two sides filled news channels and social media. In a place where every political speech is measured against decades of conflict, this one landed hard. Whether it leads to formal legal action or remains a political firestorm is still unclear, but the lines drawn on Saturday were unmistakable.
The episode once again showed how quickly debates about Kashmir’s past, present and future can turn personal and charged. Abdullah spoke of courage and identity. The BJP answered with accusations of betrayal and demands for accountability. Between those two positions, the people of the Valley continue to live with the consequences of every word spoken in their name.
Sources:
NDTV, The New Indian Express, India Today, News18, Times of India, India TV, Hindustan Times, Moneycontrol, ANI reports.
@Rohit Manral
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