Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has visited a temple in Poonch and poured water on a Shivalinga, her avowed tribute to interfaith amity and India’s multi-religious ethos interpreted by some Hindutva trolls as a triumph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s muscular nationalism.

Mehbooba’s act angered some of her co-religionists while the Hindu Right wing greeted it with as much celebration as scorn.

The People’s Democratic Party president visited the Navagraha temple in Poonch district of Jammu on Wednesday, with a video showing her offering water to the Shivalinga. Kashmiri Muslim politicians have been known to visit temples, the act rarely attracting criticism from the common Muslim.

However, they have generally refrained from praying before the idols, performing aarti or pouring water on a Shivalinga — actions forbidden in Islam.

For Mehbooba, who has visited temples in the past, the water ritual is probably a first. She defended her action as a nod to “secularism” as well as a gesture of courtesy.

“We live in a secular country and follow the Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb (Hindu-Muslim syncretism). Yashpal Sharmaji (PDP leader who died last year) had built the temple and his son wanted me to see it from inside,” she told reporters.

She added: “Out of devotion, somebody handed me water to pour on it. If somebody does it with so much devotion, you cannot break his heart and say that you cannot do it. I did what he asked for.”