As PDP lies low, BJP gets flak for Srinagar NIT row

The PDP is lying low over the NIT controversy even as its partner in J&K, the BJP, receives flak in Jammu for police lathicharge on non-local students – many of whom are from Jammu region – and the authorities refusal to allow students to leave the campus. A PDP leader said the Centre can neither shift NIT from Srinagar nor allow non-local students to go home till tempers cool down because this may result in backlash in the form of attacks on Kashmiri students studying in other parts of country. “It is, therefore, important to lie low in the NIT crisis till things get settled down with passage of time,” he said. However, with many NIT students from Jammu making distress calls back home, the issue could hound the BJP in Jammu region for some time. A BJP leader from Jammu admitted that the party had been affected by the NIT crisis. “We may face some problems in next elections,” he said.
In Jammu, some organisations and student outfits protested outside the residence of BJP leader and deputy CM Nirmal Singh against his “downplaying” of lathicharge. The Jammu Bar Association even boycotted courts on Thursday.