'Only Pak General...': J&K leaders on Musharraf; ‘Never forgive,’ says Sena MP

As Musharraf's death on Sunday led to a BJP versus Congress after Shashi Tharoor's condolence message, more such rifts came to light with Indian political leaders' difference in opinion on former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf. Former J&K chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti spoke highly of Musharraf. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the eulogising must stop.

Expressing condolences, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said Musharraf was perhaps the only Pakistani General who "genuinely tried to address the Kashmir issue". "He wanted a solution according to wishes of people of J&K & acceptable to India & Pak. Though GOI has reversed all CBMs initiated by him & Vajpayee ji, the ceasefire remains," Mufti tweeted.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah posted a photo of him shaking hands with Musharraf and said he will always remember Musharraf as the only Pakistani leader willing to meet and engage with mainstream Kashmiri leaders from India, much to the horror of Hurriyat leaders.

"His solution for the “Kashmir issue” put the interests of the people of J&K at the forefront while being realistic that the framework must ensure that neither India nor Pakistan “lost face”. It didn’t happen & we are where we are today. May Allah grant him place in Jannat," Omar tweeted.

The eulogising forgetting his lifetime of misadventures against India must be stopped, Priyanka Chaturvedi said. "..his shameful part in the Kargil War which our bravest soldiers defended with their lives while their dead were disowned by this very man. Never forget, never forgive," Chaturvedi tweeted.

The BJP slammed Shashi Tharoor's condolence message in which Tharoor called Musharraf a 'real force for peace' though once an 'implacable foe of India'. Slamming Tharoor, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted, "That a former Cong Foreign Min (a party that refused to celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas till 2010) wud think that a Pak General who inflicted terror, a back stabbing conflict n tortured our Soldiers in violatn of every Intl law, wud be a "force for peace" - best describes Cong."

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla in his attack to Tharoor referred to Musharraf's 2019 interview in which he had said he would like to see Rahul Gandhi as the PM instead of Narendra Modi.