'Badi der kar di mehrbaan aate aate': Mehbooba Mufti reacts to LK Advani's blog

Srinagar, Apr 04: Reacting to veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani's blog titled 'Nation First, Party Next, Self Last', Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti said that the former should have spoken in the last five years.

Expressing surprise, Mufti said that not even a word was uttered since the Narendra Modi government came to power.

Advani's blog in which the BJP patriarch said that his party, right from its inception, "never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our 'enemies', but only as our adversaries" came just two days before the saffron party's foundation day and a week ahead of the high-pitched Lok Sabha election.

Taking to Twitter, Mufti said, "BJP Patriarch questioning current brass for terming entire opposition as anti national is surprising. Not a word was uttered since 2014. Instead its finally said when BJPs tenure at Centre is almost over. Wish he had spoken up all these years. Badi dair kar di mehrbaan aate aate."

The 91-year-old BJP leader put out a blog post to mark the BJP's foundation day on April 6. In his blog addressing the BJP workers, Advani wrote that the foundation day of the party "is an important occasion for all of us in the BJP to look back, look ahead and look within."

In a blog post titled "Nation First, Party Next, Self Last", Advani wrote that the BJP had "never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our enemies, but only as our adversaries" and that the BJP's conception of Indian nationalism never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as "anti-national".

Advani's comments come in the backdrop of a raging debate on nationalism with the Opposition repeatedly accusing the BJP's top brass of using national security to seek votes and for not giving space for dissent.