- ‘Punishing Hindus for Voting BJP’
- Jammu Region Denied Due Share
- Satish Sharma’s Ouster Questioned
- Signs of Split in National Conference
- BJP Condemns ‘Kitchen Cabinet’
A day after the National Conference carried out its long-awaited cabinet reshuffle, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday levelled sharp allegations against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, accusing him of deliberately punishing the Hindu community of Jammu and Kashmir for supporting the BJP in the recent Assembly elections.
Addressing a joint press conference in Jammu along with party spokespersons Zorawar Singh Jamwal, Abhijeet Jasrotia and Parmoksh Seth, J&K BJP chief spokesperson Advocate Sunil Sethi charged that the new Council of Ministers reflected a clear bias against the Jammu region and the Hindu community in particular.
“Although every section of society voted for our party, Omar Abdullah is in a mood to punish Hindus,” Sethi said. By denying them due representation in the cabinet, he alleged, the Chief Minister appeared to be exacting political retribution for the community’s electoral choice.
Sethi recalled that the BJP had earlier predicted that divisions within the National Conference would begin the moment Omar Abdullah reshuffled his cabinet. With six ministers already in place—three of them from Jammu—the party had expected that at least one of the three remaining berths would go to the Jammu region and that Hindu representation would be meaningfully increased. Instead, he said, the reshuffle left the plains of Jammu without adequate representation and retained only a single Hindu face in the expanded ministry.
The BJP leader questioned the decision to drop Satish Sharma, arguing that he faced the fewest corruption allegations among those in the previous line-up. “Those facing serious allegations were retained while a person of relatively clean image was dropped,” Sethi said.
“If the National Conference wanted to remove Satish Sharma, it should at least have accommodated other Hindu MLAs to maintain balance. It has failed to do so.” He asked what message the government was sending to the people of Jammu and how residents of a region left without proper representation could expect justice from the administration.
Sethi further claimed that the open dissent visible within National Conference ranks after the reshuffle—leaders publicly criticising the party and supporters raising slogans against it—was a clear sign that the party was heading towards a split and possible political eclipse in Jammu and Kashmir.
“A large section of NC leaders is annoyed, even if many are not speaking openly,” he said. “Omar Abdullah has effectively converted the National Conference into a Muslim Conference. How can a government that completely ignores one region deliver justice to its people?
This is not a cabinet of the government but a kitchen cabinet of loyalists.”The BJP strongly condemned the exercise, asserting that it had hurt the sentiments of the people of Jammu, especially the Hindu community. Sethi warned that the coming days would prove challenging for the ruling party, noting that several of those elevated faced questions of integrity while a minister with relatively fewer allegations had been sidelined. He maintained that Omar Abdullah himself was playing a dominant role in weakening the National Conference from within.
