Kolkata, July 14 (IANS) BJP’s information technology cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal Amit Malviya on Monday ridiculed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s support towards her Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Omar Abdullah’s call to observe July 13 as “Martyrs’ Day”.
Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee reacted to the development of Omar Abdullah driving to the Martyrs’ Graveyard this morning, scaled a wall, and paid tributes to Kashmiri protesters shot dead by Maharaja Hari Singh’s Dogra forces on July 13, 1931.
“What is wrong in visiting the graveyard of martyrs? This is not only unfortunate, it also snatches the democratic right of a citizen. What happened this morning to an elected Chief Minister @OmarAbdullah is unacceptable. Shocking. Shameful,” the West Bengal Chief Minister commented on the development and also shared the comments on the wall of her official X handle.
Reacting to the post by Mamata Banerjee, Malviya issued a counter-statement claiming that the West Bengal Chief Minister’s support to Abdulla on this issue is not about remembrance.
“It’s about deliberate appeasement, historical distortion, and dog-whistle politics aimed at Islamist vote banks,” Malviya said in the statement which he also posted on the wall of his official X handle.
In the statement, he also reminded that July 13 marked the first organised communal riot in Kashmir and also a violent, Islamist uprising against the state, its institutions, and, most tragically, against innocent Hindus.
“It was an assault on the idea of India,” his statement read.
Thereafter, Malviya narrated what happened at Srinagar throughout the day on July 13, 1931, where Hindu-owned houses, shops, and homes at several places were reportedly targeted by the rioters.
“The entire riot was fuelled by the slogan ‘Islam khatre mein hai’ (‘Islam is in danger’). The real goal was to assert Islamic dominance, challenge the Dogra Hindu monarchy, and fracture Kashmir’s delicate communal balance,” Malviya’s statement read.
“This incident became the starting point of radical Islamist separatism in the Valley — something the Abdullah family, from Sheikh to Omar, has repeatedly tried to repackage as ‘martyrdom’. And now, Mamata Banerjee seeks to legitimise this false narrative, an act offensively reminiscent of Direct Action Day – 16 August 1946, in Kolkata (then Calcutta),” Malviya added.
According to him, Mamata Banerjee’s support for Omar Abdullah’s call was not about honouring freedom fighters but about whitewashing Islamist violence, flirting with separatism, and playing to a vote bank — even if it means igniting historical wounds.
“Now, she wants to unleash similar civilisational terror on Bengal. From Malda to Murshidabad, Basirhat, Deganga, Itahar, Howrah — TMC leaders, councilors, MLAs, and MPs are actively enabling and spreading violence and intimidation to engineer demographic change,” Malviya’s statement read.
–IANS
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