The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National Conference workers took to the streets in Srinagar on Wednesday to protest against each other, prompting the police to cordon off the areas. Taking a dig at both the BJP and National Conference, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti accused the police of having “facilitated” both protests.

The BJP had called for a ‘Secretariat Gherao’ to protest against the National Conference government over recruitment and power tariffs. The National Conference had announced a counter-protest outside the BJP’s offices in Jammu and Srinagar to demand “accountability for the promises made by the central government in Parliament and before the Supreme Court”.

Police cordoned off the secretariat, while NC workers were stopped from marching towards the BJP offices.

Story continues below this ad

On Wednesday morning, hundreds of BJP workers, led by the party’s J&K President Sat Sharma and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Sunil Sharma, assembled at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk and marched towards the civil secretariat.

While police stopped the protesters at Hari Singh High Street, ahead of the civil secretariat, a group of protesters reached the secretariat. BJP president Sharma called it a big protest against the “failure” of the National Conference government and thanked and congratulated all the BJP workers who participated in the protest.

The National Conference assembled at Rajbagh for their counterprotest and tried to march towards the BJP office at Jawahar Nagar. However, police stopped the protesters, including Health Minister Sakina Itoo and several NC legislators.

The National Conference called the “BJP’s police”. “A tale of two protests. One, facilitated and allowed freely. The other, roughed up and restricted. Same administration, different attitude,” the National Conference posted on social media. “Nothing will deter us from fighting for the people of J&K. Not the BJP’s police. Nor their cowardice. Not their lies”.

Story continues below this ad

Wednesday’s protests were the first public face-off between the ruling National Conference and the main opposition party BJP.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called these protests a “fixed match”. ” The very same police that won’t allow PDP to step outside its office to hold a peaceful protest on public issues have facilitated both BJP and NC to protest against each other. This blatant double standard must be explained, who authorises these selective restrictions and why the law is being applied differently to different political parties.”