Wednesday May 20, 2026
A sharp volley of political crossfire reached Kashmir on Wednesday afternoon as PDP president Mehbooba Mufti weighed in on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s explosive remarks calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah “traitors.” Speaking to reporters, Mufti said the BJP was now experiencing the consequences of its own long-running playbook — having spent years branding Muslims and secular voices as anti-national, the party was now being subjected to the same labelling by a political opponent.
Gandhi had made the incendiary remarks at a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli, accusing the BJP-RSS combine of selling out the nation and attacking the Constitution. The statement instantly electrified the national political atmosphere, drawing furious rebukes from BJP spokespersons who accused Gandhi of insulting 140 crore Indians and speaking Pakistan’s language.
For Mufti, however, the episode carries a deeply local resonance. The PDP chief has been among those most frequently targeted by BJP’s anti-national rhetoric since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Her invocation of this irony — that the same tool used against Kashmiri political leaders is now being turned against the Prime Minister by the leader of the opposition — underscores the enduring fault lines in India’s political discourse over Kashmir and Muslim identity. The episode is likely to reverberate through J&K’s political circles in the days ahead.
