The BJP on Monday termed as “very irresponsible and provocative” Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s comment that the Union government had revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status because it was a Muslim-dominated State and it would not have done so if Hindus were in a majority there.
While Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the former Home Minister of making a very irresponsible and provocative statement, BJP leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, also a Union Minister, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the Congress was giving the issue a communal angle.
At a public event in Chennai on Sunday, Mr. Chidambaram slammed the BJP-led NDA government’s decision.
“If J&K is a Hindu-dominated State, the BJP would not have done this. They did it only because the region is dominated by Muslims,” he alleged.
Defending the decision to revoke Article 370, Mr. Naqvi said the government had rectified a very big mistake made decades ago by the Congress.
“What he has said is an attempt to give communal colour though the decision is in national interest,” he said.
Mr. Chouhan, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, said it was the Congress’ “narrow- mindedness” that it was looking at the issue through a “Hindu-Muslim” prism.
Mr. Prasad said the decision was in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their development.
Hitting out at the Congress, he asked if it was not true that over 42,000, mostly Muslims, had died in the Valley during decades of violence.
