Jammu’s Right-wing ecosystem has denounced the region’s Hindu legislators, who are either part of the National Conference-led government or support it, as “anti-Dogra” and “traitors” for backing the restoration of Article 370.

The resolution for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was moved by deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary, a National Conference MLA from Jammu’s Nowshera constituency. It was passed by the Assembly by voice vote
this week.

Choudhary defeated the BJP’s then state president Ravinder Raina in the polls.

Other non-BJP legislators, including Independent Chhamb MLA Satish Sharma, have also supported the resolution. Sharma, the son of former Jammu
MP Madan Lal Sharma, is a minister in the Omar Abdullah government.

Several Jammu politicians and activists have taken offence to Sharma’s recent speech in the Assembly where he said people in Jammu want Jammu and Kashmir to return to the August 4, 2019, position, thus favouring the restoration of Article 370.

The minister had also said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir favoured “purane din” (old days) instead of “achhe din” (good days), a slogan used by the BJP following the abrogation of Article 370.

The BJP has won 29 out of 43 seats in Jammu. The NC’s two Hindu candidates from the region — Surinder Choudhary and Arjun Singh Raju (Ramban) — also won the election. The NC later got the support of three more Hindu MLAs, including Sharma.

Anoop Kotwal, whose social media profile describes him as the BJP’s co-incharge of IT and social
media cell and convener of the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, accused Sharma of being
a traitor.

“(Emperor) Akbar had Raja Maan Singh, Mohammad Ghori had Jai Chand, Omar Abdullah has Satish Sharma,” he wrote on X.

“Paid stooges of Kashmir like Surinder Choudhary who are living in Jammu, are elected from Jammu end up betraying patriotic people of Jammu and India by supporting seditious Article 370 which has given us only bloodshed, disharmony, separatism and terrorism,” Neeraj Singh Dogra, who heads Jammu Pradesh People’s Movement, wrote on X about the deputy
chief minister.

Prof Hari Om, former head of the history department at Jammu University, claimed everyone in Jammu was denouncing Choudhary as “Jammu’s Jaichand”.

Choudhary on Saturday asked the BJP leadership to explain why outsiders were taking jobs and land in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu’s pro-BJP activist Vikramaditya Singh Sumbria accused Sharma of being Omar’s puppet.

“He is anti-Dogra, because he is pro Article 370,” he wrote on X.

Sumbria told this newspaper that Sharma should not claim to represent Jammu because the BJP had won 29 out of 43 seats in the region.

“This government is Kashmir-centric. People of Jammu gave a mandate to the BJP,”
he said.

The BJP MLAs had opposed the resolution on the special status that was passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly earlier this week. Some of them were marshalled out on the direction of Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather for creating a ruckus inside the House.

The five-day session of the Assembly ended on Friday.