 "Mehbooba poisoning young minds in J-K for vested political interests: BJP")
Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina on Tuesday accused PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti of "poisioning young minds" for vested political interests after she objected to students being compelled to sing 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram'.
The former chief minister had on Monday posted a video on Twitter in which school staff were seen asking students to recite the hymn, considered Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajan, and termed it the government's real "Hindutva agenda".
"Jailing religious scholars, shutting down Jama Masjid & directing school kids here to sing Hindu hymns exposes the real hindutva agenda of GOI in Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief had said in the tweet.
Reacting to her remarks, Raina said she should avoid playing such politics by "poisoning the young minds".
"Mahatma Gandhi united the whole nation by this bhajan during the freedom struggle. The school children also sing 'lab pe aati hai dua banke tamanna meri... (my heart's desire comes to my lips as a prayer) in their morning assembly and there was no objection from anyone," Raina said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a free medical camp organised by the party here under 'Sewa Pakhwada', he said some people deliberately create such controversies for their vested political interests.
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"Mehbooba should avoid playing such type of politics. She has lost her ground in Kashmir and people of the Valley rejected her. She is coming out with such a conspiracy (to regain her place)," he said.
"This country belongs to all of us, the people of all faiths -- Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and others. Mehbooba should read more often Allama Iqbal's 'mazhab nahin sikhata aapas mein bair rakhna' (religion does not teach us to fight)...," the BJP leader said.
On the reopening of cinema halls in Kashmir after over three decades, Raina quipped, "This is the beginning of a new era. Our youngsters in the Valley have only heard the sounds of bombs and bullets and are deprived of all entertainment available to their counterparts in other parts of the country."
"The people will have an enjoyable experience with the opening of multiplexes," he added.
Raina also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for declaring the last Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh's birth anniversary on September 23 as an annual holiday.
He said the BJP is "working overtime" to resolve the issues in Jammu and Kashmir and the problems faced by daily wage workers.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)