SRINAGAR: At a rally in Srinagar on Saturday, the BJP put Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Sunil Sharma, at the forefront of launching a political attack on the Omar Abdullah government.Sharma, who represents Badar constituency in Kishtwar district, alternated between Urdu and Kashmiri as he addressed hundreds of party workers, accusing the ruling National Conference of practicing “double-speak” on Kashmir and failing to deliver on promises on jobs and welfare schemes.BJP president and Rajya Sabha member Sat Sharma welcomed the new entrants into the party fold from the PDP, NCP and Congress, describing this steady influx of leaders and workers from every section in Kashmir as an indication of the party’s broadening base.“He (Prime Minister Omar Abdullah) is saying one thing in Delhi and another in Kashmir,” Sunil Sharma told the gathering, adding that NC leaders are portraying Kashmiris in a negative light before the central government, while publicly expressing sympathy for their suffering in the Valley. “Why don’t people see this doublespeak?” question.However, it was his attempt to compare two specific moments in Kashmir’s history that particularly caught attention and angered the NCP, which accused the BJP of “manufacturing narratives”.
Sharma pointed to the unrest of 2010, when more than 100 civilians, many of them teenagers, were killed during months of protests and clashes with police and security forces. Among the first to be killed were 13-year-old Wamiq Farouk and 17-year-old Tufail Mattu, whose deaths became a rallying point for widespread demonstrations. Sharma said that Omar justified the killing of Wamiq and Tufail, claiming that they were part of a “rebellion” against the government he was leading at the time.The Protection Act was then invoked on July 13, 1931, when 22 people were shot dead by Maharaja Hari Singh’s forces outside a Srinagar jail during protests against Dogra rule. This date is widely celebrated in Kashmir as ‘Martyrs’ Day’.Those killed in 1931 were remembered as “martyrs” by the NC, while Wamiq, Tufail and others killed in 2010 were charged with rebellion, Sharma said, adding, “We need to think about this.”He accused the NC of exploiting “Kashmiri sentiments” after failing to deliver on its economic commitments, including promises of job creation and 200 units of free electricity, and alleged that the government had outsourced 24,000 jobs to an unknown company.
“The BJP will walk the walk against such secret recruitments,” he said.National Conference spokesman Imran Nabi Dar denied the allegations. “It is the BJP that has failed to fulfill its promise to restore the state,” he said. Referring to July 13, 1931, Dar said that this day symbolizes Kashmiri resistance against the monarchy and affirmation of Kashmiri identity. “The BJP is trying to build a false narrative around this. They are trying the same thing with the events of 2010 to whip up sentiment in Kashmir in their favour,” he added.
