Jammu, Mar 6: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Sunil Sharma, stirred a major controversy on Wednesday by calling the July 13, 1931 martyrs “traitors” and rejecting any recognition of them as national heroes.
Speaking to reporters in Jammu, Sharma asserted that those who rebelled against Maharaja Hari Singh’s rule were anti-nationals and could not be honored as martyrs. “We cannot observe Martyrs’ Day in the name of those who worked against the interests of the nation,” he said.
According to Sharma, the real heroes of Jammu and Kashmir’s history are figures like Maqbool Sherwani, Major Somnath Sharma, and Brigadier Rajinder Singh, who, he claimed, defended the region from external threats. “We have always maintained, both inside and outside the Assembly, that those who betrayed the Maharaja cannot be given the status of martyrs,” he added.
Sharma further alleged that those killed outside Srinagar Central Jail on July 13, 1931, were involved in acts of arson. “They first set a Hindu locality on fire and then revolted against the Maharaja’s rule. These people were wrongly glorified as martyrs by the Congress party, but under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, we will not allow such distortions of history,” he said.
The BJP leader also accused Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather of being biased, alleging that he was favoring a particular political party in the Assembly proceedings.
Earlier in the day, Sharma’s remarks triggered a storm in the Legislative Assembly during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the Lieutenant Governor’s address. When PDP legislator Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra called for the reinstatement of July 13 as a public holiday in honor of the martyrs, Sharma immediately objected, declaring that they were “not martyrs, but traitors.”
His comments sparked outrage among members of the Treasury benches and opposition parties from Kashmir, who demanded that the remarks be removed from the official records. Congress MLA Nizam-ud-Din Bhat called the statements “divisive and humiliating” and urged the Speaker to ensure their expungement.
Amid heated exchanges and slogans from both sides, Speaker Rather announced that Sharma’s remarks had been struck from the Assembly records. Enraged by the decision, all BJP legislators staged a walkout in protest. [KNT]
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