Contrary to the popular political stand of his party, media baron-turned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Karnal, Ashwini Kumar Chopra 'Minna', said on Sunday that Kashmiris did not intend to stay with India.
Chopra, who was in Indri town in the district to attend a religious function, told reporters that he was well aware of the popular sentiments of people of Kashmir.
"People of Kashmir neither want to stay with India nor Pakistan but they only talk of Azad Kashmir (an autonomous Kashmir). I have travelled vastly in Jammu and Kashmir and understand it (the issue) better (than anyone else)," he said.
Lashing out at his national leadership, Chopra said that that the BJP's decision of forming an alliance government with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the J&K was erroneous.
He called J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed a 'behrupia' (con artiste), who has 'pro-separatist inclination'.
Chopra said that Kashmir was an issue of 'izzat" (honour) for the BJP and deaths of more than 37,000 security personnel in militant attacks in the valley could not be forgotten by the nation.
"The day when the BJP-PDP government was formed, I had opposed it by writing an article in my newspaper. I still firmly believe that the decision of an alliance government was incorrect. But the party high command and the Prime Minister perhaps had taken a conscious decision (on the alliance)," said
{{/usCountry}}"The day when the BJP-PDP government was formed, I had opposed it by writing an article in my newspaper. I still firmly believe that the decision of an alliance government was incorrect. But the party high command and the Prime Minister perhaps had taken a conscious decision (on the alliance)," said
{{/usCountry}}Chopra, who is owner and editor a Hindi newspaper based in New Delhi. However, the BJP-PDP coalition would be short-lived, he added.