A rally intended to mark the anniversary of the end of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status has produced outrage, suspensions and allegations of graft
The chants rose over Housing Colony in Khanabal on the morning of August 5, men waving the Tiranga and celebrating what the Bharatiya Janata Party calls a day of national unity.
Then the words turned, and workers began shouting a slogan invoking two common Kashmiri women’s names, Aazi and Fazi, declaring that their honour had ended.
A camera caught it all.
Former MLC Sofi Mohammad Yousuf, who led the rally, stood among the crowd and said nothing.
By twilight, the video had spread across Jammu and Kashmir, and a day meant for celebration had become the latest flashpoint in the region’s long argument over what August 5 means.
Seven years ago, the government of India used this date to strip Jammu and Kashmir of the special constitutional status it had held for decades, introducing the Reorganisation Bill that split the former state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Parliament passed the measure, and in December 2023, the Supreme Court of India upheld it.
The anniversary is a milestone worth marking with flags and rallies for the ruling BJP. But for National Conference, the PDP and Congress, it remains a ‘wound’.
The regional parties, mostly rendered powerless, used this year’s date, as they have every year since, to press for the return of statehood.
It was against that backdrop that the Anantnag rally unraveled into something the BJP had not planned for.
The backlash came quickly. J&K Health and Education Minister Sakina Itoo condemned the slogans and demanded consequences. National Conference leader Tanvir Sadiq said the names chanted that day stood for Kashmiri mothers and sisters, and treating them as objects of ridicule crossed a line.
The PDP, AAP and several civil society groups added their voices, and pressure built on the party to respond.
The BJP moved to separate itself from the men in the video. Spokesperson Altaf Thakur said the remarks reflected individuals, not the party’s position, and insisted the BJP stood for the empowerment of women.
The Anantnag district unit went further, saying the rally itself had never been sanctioned. District president Rakesh Koul said organisers had skipped the required permission from local authorities altogether, and what they said about women could not be defended.
Nine office-bearers were subsequently suspended from the party’s primary membership and stripped of their organisational posts pending an inquiry: district general secretary Nisar Ahmad Bhat, district secretary Khursheed Ahmad Sofi, district secretary Aabida Rafiq, Shangus constituency president Irshad Ahmad Malik, Mohammad Maqbool Ganie, Pahalgam constituency president Waheed Ahmad Itoo, district secretary Nisar Ahmad Hakeem, Kisan Morcha secretary Feroz Ahmad Hajam and Mahila Morcha secretary Sabrooza Akhter.
Two other names circulating online, Alveer Ahmad Dar and Fancy Akhter, had no formal ties to the district unit, the party said.
Yousuf, the man who led the rally, faced no suspension.
Then the suspended workers spoke, and the story shifted again.
They apologised for the slogans but said their removal had little to do with the words chanted that morning.
BJP worker Afdal Waheed told reporters that district general secretary Abid Hussain Nengroo had pressed him for money, telling him it could secure SPO positions and other opportunities tied to the MY Bharat programme.
Waheed put the figure at roughly Rs 8.25 lakh, covering what he described as payments for Amarnath Yatra permissions and lodging, along with furniture for the party office that he said he had personally guaranteed.
He said he had already filed a complaint with the SSP in Anantnag and wanted a full inquiry, one that would bring everyone involved into a room and trace where the money went.
Those claims remain unverified.
Koul, the district president, apologised on behalf of his team but drew a distinction between a slip of the tongue and a deliberate insult, saying the party’s leadership had called for contrition and gotten it.
On the corruption claims, he pointed away from the party altogether, noting that permissions for events like the Amarnath Yatra come from the Deputy Commissioner rather than from any BJP office-bearer.
He waved off talk of lasting damage, observing that accusations follow even the prime minister and the party keeps winning elections regardless.
No public evidence yet connects the suspensions to the corruption complaints the workers say they raised beforehand, and none has surfaced to explain why Yousuf escaped discipline that fell on nine others who stood near him.
What remains is a district unit holding two unresolved threads at once, a slogan that shamed the party in public and an internal complaint that could shame it in private, both now sitting with investigators while Anantnag waits to learn which version of the story holds.
