National Conference (NC) MLA and chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq triggered a row after claiming that poverty in Kashmir was so severe before the party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s movement that an entire village would share a single pair of trousers.
Sadiq’s remarks, which he made to highlight the NC’s legacy of land reforms and socio-economic uplift, drew sharp criticism from opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Both parties dismissed the remarks as arrogant, degrading the cultural and historic identity of the Kashmiri people and demanded a public apology.
The remarks have also sparked widespread ridicule on social media, with several users sharing memes targeting the NC spokesperson. The BJP held protests in Srinagar against Sadiq’s remarks. “The NC and its chief spokesperson should tender a public apology as his remarks have insulted the people of entire Kashmir,” BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur said.
PDP senior leader and district president Rafique Rather termed the remarks hypocrisy.
“When pleasing the master becomes the mission, dignity becomes the casualty. Tanvir Sadiq @tanvirsadiq of NC calling Kashmiris clothless is a display of hypocrisy. To win applause from those in power, an elected representative finds it convenient to portray an entire Kashmiri society through a baseless and insulting anecdote. This isn’t courage; it is the politics of flattery taken to an embarrassing extreme,” he wrote on X.
{{/usCountry}}“When pleasing the master becomes the mission, dignity becomes the casualty. Tanvir Sadiq @tanvirsadiq of NC calling Kashmiris clothless is a display of hypocrisy. To win applause from those in power, an elected representative finds it convenient to portray an entire Kashmiri society through a baseless and insulting anecdote. This isn’t courage; it is the politics of flattery taken to an embarrassing extreme,” he wrote on X.
{{/usCountry}}NC legislator Javeed Baig termed Sadiq’s remarks a slip of the tongue. “He (Tanvir) never meant what is now being portrayed. If sentiments are hurt, we are sorry, as it pertained to our elders and every generation has evolved with the passage of time,” he said.