New Delhi [India], September 6 : BJP MP Gulam Ali Khatana has strongly condemned the viral video showing a mob allegedly tarnishing the national emblem on the foundation stone of the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar.
"Every citizen must respect the National Flag and the National Emblem... Disrespect towards them is not acceptable. It was not at the place of prayer. Hazratbal has been renovated, and the national emblem on the foundation stone is on the outside wall. Legal action must be taken against whoever tarnished it...," he said.
BJP MP further hits back at CM Omar Abdullah over his statement on Hazratbal Shrine, saying plates were placed for transparency and the emblem was outside the prayer hall. He accused Omar of playing politics with pseudo-secularism, adding that people of Kashmir don't take him seriously.
"Plates are placed for transparency. He is in politics. Nobody is going to take this politics of pseudo-secularism... The people of Kashmir dont take him seriously. The emblem was on the outside wall, not in the prayer hall," he said.
Earlier today, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the use of the national emblem on the plaque of the renovated Hazratbal Shrine, adding that he has never seen it used at any religious places.
He emphasised that government emblems are only used at government functions, not in religious places such as mosques, Dargahs, Temples, or Gurdwaras.
"The first question is whether the emblem should have been etched on the foundation stone. I have never seen the emblem being used in any religious place. So, what was the compulsion to have the emblem on the stone at Hazratbal Shrine? What was the need to put up the stone? Was just work not enough?" Omar Abdullah said.
This comes after a viral video had surfaced showing a mob defacing the national emblem inscribed on the foundation stone of the shrine, which is undergoing reconstruction and redevelopment under the Waqf Board.
"Hazratbal Shrine was given this form by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. Did he put up such stones anywhere? People remember his work, despite his not putting up a stone for himself. Government emblems are used only at government places. Mosques, dargahs, temples, Gurdwaras are not government places; these are religious places; government emblems are not used there," Omar Abdullah said.