Red Fort blast case: In J&K, lone BJP voice opposes party’s 'demolition and blast' policy

When BJP’s Arshad Bhat struck a different note from his party on the wanton use of oppressive laws against dissidents in the Kashmir Valley, last September, many, including his BJP colleagues, brushed it aside as a political novice’s experiments with pragmatism in a tough election.

Also Read: Delhi blast: Pulwama house of suspect Dr. Umar Nabi demolished

Bhat was then the BJP’s candidate from Rajpora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama, facing his Assembly poll debut against formidable opponents from the National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and so his campaign, replete with slogans reminiscent of those raised by separatists, attracted no censure from the hyper-nationalistic party he had joined just seven months earlier.

Row over demolition of Nabi’s home

A little over a year later, the 35-year-old social activist from Pulwama’s Dadoora village, who, despite his poll loss, has quickly risen through the party’s ranks — he was appointed as the J&K BJP’s Kisan Morcha chief just a week ago — is back in the headlines for drifting away from the ‘party line’ again. Unlike last time, though, Bhat has now raised the BJP’s hackles.

The BJP leader from the Valley has emerged as the lone voice from his party in J&K to decry the demolition of the home of Pulwama native Dr Umar Nabi, the alleged ‘bomber’ in the November 10 Red Fort car blast that claimed over a dozen lives. Nabi’s two-storeyed home in Pulwama’s Koil village, where his parents, brother and sister-in-law lived, was blown up on the night of November 14 by authorities under instructions from the Union Territory’s administration. Nabi’s family was asked to vacate their residence hastily before the home they had built was razed.

Call to end 'demolition and blast policy'

Days later, in a post on social media, Bhat called for an end to the “demolition and blast policy” that had first begun as the leitmotif of the BJP’s Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh some years ago in the form of bulldozer injustice and has now been replicated across several states, most ruled by the BJP, and manifested in different forms — including the blasting of homes using explosives.

Also Read: Srinagar man held in white-collar terror case linked to Delhi blast

“A father of a terrorist cannot be called a terrorist or weighed on the same scale as his militant son,” Bhat wrote, while asserting that Kashmiris lived “in a complex situation” wherein even the graves of the erstwhile state’s political stalwarts like National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed were “guarded by security personnel”.

Appealing against the culture of demolishing the homes of anyone accused of a terrorist act, Bhat wrote further that Kashmiris were “living life on a double-edged sword”.

BJP warns of disciplinary action

The brickbats for Bhat didn’t take long to come from the BJP’s J&K unit. Party spokesperson Altaf Thakur told The Federal that Bhat’s views do not reflect the party’s stance against terror and warned of action against the J&K Kisan Morcha chief.

“He (Bhat) has no prerogative to issue such statements that defy the party’s official line. This is his personal opinion, but the party has taken note of it. If somebody doesn’t toe the party line… expect action to be taken against him,” Thakur said.

Rationale behind 'collective punishment' questioned

Bhat, who had earned a reputation in Pulwama for his social service long before he joined the BJP, however, doesn’t seem affected by the censure. “We live in a civilised society. There are non-violent measures to deal with such situations, including attachment of property… why blast houses?,” Bhat asked, while asserting that razing the home of an accused is an unfair punishment for an entire family, which may have had nothing to do with the crime.

Bhat told The Federal that as a political worker, he finds it “difficult to justify” the demolition of a family’s home for an individual’s crime.

Also Read: Delhi blast: All Kashmiris being looked at with suspicion, says Omar Abdullah

Bhat also cited the example of the family of Muzammil Shakeel Ganie, another Pulwama native and a doctor like Nabi, who was arrested from Haryana’s Faridabad days before the Red Fort blast and is currently being investigated by the NIA for his alleged role in a so-called “white collar terror module”.

Claiming that Muzammil’s family was one of “nationalists”, Bhat said “the family would have never imagined that something like this would happen to them.” Claiming that Muzammil’s family too had called for stringent action against Muzammil and other accused “if they are found guilty”, the BJP leader said, “the family says that if their child has deviated from the path, he deserves a stern punishment” and questioned the rationale behind “making the whole family suffer”.

Defiant despite party pushback

While Bhat’s comments may have shades of what even the Supreme Court had said while outlining guidelines against bulldozer injustice, the BJP clearly is not buying his arguments. “We have a clear stand. Any structure of terror has to be demolished; any place that is a threat to the unity of the country or is being used for conspiring against the country has to be demolished,” Thakur told The Federal.

Incensed at Bhat’s demand to put an end to the “demolition and blast policy,” the BJP spokesperson said, “people who are crying over the demolition of houses should understand that the house can be rebuilt, but nothing will bring back the people who were killed in the terror incident.”

Bhat, however, remains cautiously defiant; insisting he has not acted against party interests and even cites his own past suffering of six months in jail “during the Covid-19 pandemic” in a case filed against him (under IPC section 505 (1) (b) — publishing or circulating statements likely to cause fear or alarm to the public) out of “political vendetta by those who did not want to see me rise in politics.”

Also Read: Delhi blast: Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz urges end to ‘harassment’ of Kashmiris across states

His stance, however, has added another chapter to the debate over whether punitive demolitions help curb terrorism or deepen alienation in a region perennially hanging in the fragile balance between security and civil rights. On which side of this debate his party stands, of course, is in no doubt.