‘BJP is and was never anti-muslim, we are a party that accommodates people of all faiths, sects’
Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Srinagar, June 11 (KINS): Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) J&K General Secretary (organization) Ashok Koul Thursday lashed out at the National Conference senior leader Sheikh Mustafa Kamaal for praising Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani and calling BJP as an anti-Muslim party.
Speaking to news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), Koul said that ‘Kamaal has an old habit of spewing venom against other parties without knowing the reality’. “Before going or speaking against BJP, one should understand the BJP fully. Praising a separatist leader is something one shouldn’t expect from a mainstream leader and the son of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah who preferred India over Pakistan in 1947,” Koul said.
He said that BJP has never been anti-Muslim and there is no religious that teaches hatred against other religion. “In Bandipora, last rites of Pandit woman were performed by Muslims and recently in one of the Indian states, Wakf Board denied land for a grave of a Muslim man and Hindu’s came forward and offered land and then the Muslim man was buried in Hindu land,” Koul said.
He said BJP is a party that respects all religions, faith and sects. “It is in the blood of every single Indian. But some people who have grown up after getting funds from outside to speak in a way that triggers communal frenzy,” Koul said.
He said if praising Geelani at this juncture is good then situation in Kashmir would not have what it is present. “If someone who is responsible for turning Kashmir into hell is good, then what can we say,” Koul said. “It’s simply a nonsense statement.”
About Article 370, Koul said that the BJP’s first president Shama Prassad Mukherji had vowed to roll back Article 370 and that’s what BJP’s top leadership has done. “People are happy with the decision,” he said. (KINS)
