Two BJP Ministers have quit the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition Govt. in Jammu & Kashmir after they were directed by the party high-command to put in their papers for taking part in a rally supportive of the accused persons.  Ironically enough, four cops and a juvenile are among the accused

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP are the parties which jointly rule the trouble-torn State of Jammu & Kashmir.  The brutal gang-rape and murder of an 8-year old Muslim Gujjar girl (nomadic tribe community) in Kathua District by 8 persons (spread over four days) in January at a local temple has shocked the conscience of the entire nation.  Celebrities and politicians alike have condemned the brutality.

Amid allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was purposeful in his silence on the issue, Modi said that the incidents of rape in Kathua in J&K and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh had brought humiliation to the country.  “Those involved in these crimes would get severely punished,” he assured the nation.

In the meantime, two BJP Ministers in J&K Cabinet – Industries Minister Chandra Prakash Ganga and Forests Minister Lal Singh – have quit their respective posts after a huge controversy erupted over their participation in a rally supportive of the accused and arrested persons.

BJP’s J&K president Sat Sharma said that while taking part in the rally could have been the personal decision of the two concerned Ministers, he was of the opinion that they should have refrained from doing so.  He also informed that the chief-minister had accepted the duo’s resignation from the State Cabinet.