BJP should explain release of Hurriyat leader: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday targeted the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the release of a hardline Hurriyat leader in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The BJP is responsible for the latest happenings in Jammu and Kashmir as it is in power there. The party has to explain to the people the release of a hardliner by the state government," Nitish Kumar told the media.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party was in so much hurry to grab power in Jammu and Kashmir that it compromised with the ideological principles of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

"What is happening in Jammu and Kashmir is the result of the BJP's hunger for power," he said, describing the alliance between the BJP and the Peoples Democratic Party as "unprincipled and opportunistic".

Mukherjee was the founder of Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, and had launched a massive agitation against article 370 that grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Lambasting the BJP for joining hands with the PDP, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called a 'baap-beti' (father-daughter) party during the assembly poll, Nitish Kumar said: "This is playing with the nation and betraying its people."

Nitish Kumar also questioned Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's statement thanking militant outfits and Pakistan for the peaceful assembly polls in the state.