Srinagar: The allegations by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leaders in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district that sought to link some employees of the Ratle power project with terrorism and Pakistan, were dismissed as a “local issue” by Union power minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday (January 4). Khattar also said he was “not aware” when asked about the alleged association of saffron party leaders with workers flagged “subversive/antinational” by the local police.Speaking with reporters in Kishtwar, Khattar, a senior BJP leader and former chief minister of Haryana also ruled out the likelihood of the Union government ordering a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the crisis that broke out at the site of the Ratle power project last month.“It is a local issue and it should be resolved at the local level only. It’s not a big issue,” Khattar said, when asked whether the NIA was going to probe the allegations of terror links of some workers employed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) which is executing the project. As The Wire has reported, at least three workers of the Ratle power project flagged by police as “subversive/antinational” elements have been associated with the saffron party and they were appointed to key positions in the BJP’s Kishtwar unit last year. Also read: Jammu and Kashmir Police Crack Down on VPN Use, File FIRs and Bind Down Dozens Across DistrictsSome of these employees, including a nephew of a top Hizbul Mujahideen operative, have also been photographed with the saffron party’s Kishtwar legislator Shagun Parrihar. Asked for comment about the association of these employees with the BJP, Khattar replied: “We are not aware but we will definitely take note of this. Only clean people who don’t disrupt work should get jobs here. It is the responsibility of the local contractor to ensure that only clean and capable people are hired”. The construction of the run-of-the-river 850-MW hydropower project which is coming up on Chenab river in Kishtwar’s Drabshala was halted temporarily after Burhan Andrabi, the MEIL’s human resource head, was injured in a targeted attack near the construction site on December 4, prompting the Kishtwar police to file an FIR.The attack took place against the backdrop of false allegations by the saffron party’s Kishtwar leaders and activists, which were amplified by a local social media influencer Asif Iqbal Naik, that the MEIL purported to sabotage the national project by deliberately employing workers with links to militancy and Pakistan.Senior leader of J&K BJP and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in J&K assembly Sunil Sharma and the Kishtwar legislator Parrihar have also alleged that there was a conspiracy to derail the national project, accusing the MEIL of “working to fulfil Pakistan’s agenda”. However, the MEIL’s project manager shot back at the saffron party in a video statement, accusing Parrihar and other local BJP leaders of forcing the management to adopt unfair practices by recruiting employees on political and religious grounds.The war of words broke out after the MEIL issued orders for retrenchment of 320 employees under clause (c) of section 25-f of the Industrial Dispute Act 1947. Later, the employment of some 200 employees was terminated. While the BJP alleged that only locals were retrenched, official documents show that at least 73 of them were non-locals while the local employees who were retrenched also belonged to Doda, Ramban, Jammu and Poonch districts of J&K besides Kishtwar. J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah has blamed Sharma and Parrihar of “meddling” in the power projects in Kishtwar which have been fast-tracked by the BJP-led Union government after the reading down of Article 370.However, Sharma and Parrihar have dismissed the allegations by citing a letter of the Kishtwar police which red-flagged 29 workers employed by the MEIL at the project site as “subversive/anti-national” elements. Also read: J&K: Blacklisted BJP-Linked Contractor at Centre of Ratle Power Project Row in KishtwarInterestingly, none of these workers have been convicted in any case and most of them have been booked in a common FIR that was filed in connection with a workers’ protest at the Ratle project site. An investigation by The Wire also found that the crisis at the Ratle project may have been a result of denial of contracts to Sanjay Parrihar, a resident of Kuntwara in Kishtwar and senior BJP activist who was blacklisted by the MEIL.Sanjay Parrihar, who has been photographed with LoP Sharma later led an agitation to demand the ouster of non-local employees including the MEIL’s project manager Singh and human resource head Andrabi. On December 16, Singh wrote to the Kishtwar police with the assurance that the red-flagged employees were “under close watch” and that “any anti-national/anti-project activities” would be “promptly reported” to the police.The Kishtwar police have not yet acted on Singh’s complaint seeking criminal proceedings under sections 351 (criminal intimidation) and 356 (criminal defamation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) along with sections 66-E and 67 of the Information Technology Act against the social media influencer Naik.