New Delhi: It has now been close to six months since Omar Abdullah, National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, was put under preventive detention, along with a number of other leaders. This was done at the behest of the Centre, while it read down Article 370 of the constitution and divided the erstwhile state into two union territories, without taking any Kashmiri voices on board.A photograph of Abdullah surfaced recently, in which he is seen sporting a beard. Before the lockdown in the Valley, the former chief minister was clean shaven.The Bharatiya Janata Party government has said nothing about when it plans to release the leaders who have been detained, even as it continues to spin the “normalcy” narrative in Kashmir. That, however, did not get in the way party’s Tamil Nadu unit decision that this was an appropriate moment to make a “joke” at Abdullah’s expense. The official Twitter handle of the unit tweeted a screenshot of an Amazon order of shaving blades, to be gifted to the NC leader.A screenshot of BJP’s tweet.Unsurprisingly, the insensitive joke was widely criticised on Twitter.Official handle of the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit. This is their attempt to make light of the “preventive” detention of the former Chief Minister and other leaders for almost 6 months now, with no charges against them https://t.co/LiSJrbT28k— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) January 28, 2020How insensitive & hateful can someone be!!! Appalled that this is the level of discourse the biggest national political party of our country is propagating! Shameful, to say the least! #Kashmir https://t.co/vtY1eY17ES— Rishi Suri (@rishi_suri) January 28, 2020He is a former CM, a former MP, a current MLA and was MoS external affairs in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet – who has been in detention for nearly 6 months for no fault of his and then this is how irresponsibly an official party twitter handle speaks about him. https://t.co/zm9SH5P8q7— Marya Shakil (@maryashakil) January 28, 2020Shameful tweet by ruling party. What amazes is that just before the 370 move, PM Modi himself met the Abdullahs. https://t.co/DZ85DqmxZH pic.twitter.com/SKBhHgp8y6— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) January 28, 2020Whoever wrote this needs lessons in civility & respect. And also in politics & history. @OmarAbdullah was PM Vajpayee’s MoS for external affairs. And remains an ex CM & elected mainstream political leader in detention without cause for near 6 months.For shame. https://t.co/cUpl54kYlc— Maya Mirchandani (@maya206) January 28, 2020The party then deleted the tweet, but did not offer an apology. One assumes that the Amazon packet is still on its way to Abdullah.This is the nth time TN BJP is tweeting some crap and then taking it down.People are watching guys, NOTA is still far away !Let there be civility in discourse 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ATEnY9Z6ed— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) January 28, 2020Even before the Tamil Nadu BJP unit’s public, offensive joke, Union BJP minister Giriraj Singh had made fun of Abdullah’s beard. “Article 370 was removed from Kashmir, but shaving blades weren’t,” he tweeted in Hindi. He was responding to a tweet by Mamata Banerjee, who was expressing concern for Abdullah.कश्मीर से धारा 370 35a हटाया था ..उस्तरा (Razor) नहीं ?? https://t.co/q9tDgMCbeh— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) January 27, 2020The Tamil Nadu BJP’s “joke” was likely inspired by the Congress. On Republic Day, the party had a copy of the constitution shipped to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The shipment was rejected.Dear people of India,We tried, but Modi ji is just not interested in the Constitution.Ab kare toh kare kya? pic.twitter.com/eRX6g0n0iA— Congress (@INCIndia) January 27, 2020
