Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut (file photo).

Mumbai:

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut hit out at BJP a day after Mehbooba Mufti's statement in which the former chief minister had said that peace will not be restored in Kashmir unless the central government talks to the people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Raut said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief could make such remarks as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with his party worked to strengthen people like him by forming the government in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir.

Sanjay Raut told reporters that the Mufti-led PDP was once a 'friend' of the BJP.

He claimed that the PDP has been pro-Pakistan since its inception and sympathizes with terrorists.

The PDP and BJP came together in 2015 to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir, but the alliance broke in June 2018.

Mufti on Saturday reiterated his urge to hold talks with the people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir from the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Sanjay Raut said that Mehbooba Mufti supported Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, yet the BJP formed the government in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with her party.

Raut alleged, "Now the same Mehbooba Mufti wants talks with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue.

This is the sin of the BJP."

He said that BJP has given strength to such people by sharing power, so BJP is responsible for what Mehbooba Mufti is saying.

The Rajya Sabha member further said that whatever may be the view of BJP on this issue, but Shiv Sena has always been opposing the ideology of PDP and will continue to do so.

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil's recent remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sleeps only two hours and works 22 hours a day, Raut claimed it was "the culmination of flattery".

He quipped that the Prime Minister has even lost his two hours of sleep after hearing Patil's remarks.

Sanjay Raut satirized that according to BJP leaders like Patil, only Modi works hard and there is no other leader in the world, including US President Joe Biden, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky.


The Shiv Sena leader said, "The sycophants were there earlier also.

Even Mahatma Gandhi had sycophants.

Sardar Patel also had sycophants.

But we have never seen such sycophants before…, this is the culmination of sycophancy." Raut made a similar remark in his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana'.