The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reminded National Conference president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday that it was the saffron party that had given him his first political break.
The BJP was reacting to Omar’s comments a day earlier that his party will never align with them to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir, where governor rule remains in force since January, when chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed died.
Abdullah was a junior minister of foreign affairs in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.
“BJP gave political identity to Omar by making him MoS external affairs in the Vajpayee government. If BJP is an anti-Muslim party, why did he choose to be a minister,” BJP leader Ishfaq-ur-Rehman Poswal said.
Poswal, who is also the national executive member of the BJP’s scheduled tribe morcha, accused Omar of trying to “scare away Muslims” from the BJP and also creating fear among Kashmiri Pandits.