Ethnic cleansing in Kashmir failure of secularism: Jaitley

New Delhi, April 28: BJP leader

Monday said "ethnic cleansing" in Kashmir was the "greatest failure" of secularism in India, asking National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah to take a dip in Dal Lake as a gesture of repentance.

Nobody needed to "jump into the sea" if Narendra Modi becomes the prime minister of India, Jaitley said in a blog published Monday.

"...if Farooq Abdullah and his party were silent spectators when the Kashmiri pundits could not return home, he should as a gesture of repentance at least take a dip in the Dal Lake," Jaitley said.

In response to Abdullah's comment that Kashmir will not remain with India if it becomes communal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader called exodus of Hindus from Kashmir Valley the "biggest failure of secularism in India".

"The single greatest failure of secularism in India is within Abdullah's own state of Kashmir. If India has witnessed an ethnic cleansing by having one community of the state, namely the Kashmiri pundits ejected out of the state, it has only happened in Kashmir," he said.

"India will never accept communal politics. I am glad when Abdullah said Kashmir will not accept communal politics. But will Kashmir offer the red carpet for the resettlement of the Kashmiri pundits," he asked.

IANS