Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday suspected a sinister design in the targeting of the established pro-India political leadership of Kashmir, primarily aimed at creating polarisation on religious grounds in the rest of the country.

“It is obvious that the Government is trying to remove nationalist leaders like Farooq Abdullah Ji to create a political vacuum in Jammu & Kashmir that will be filled by terrorists. Kashmir can then permanently be used as a political instrument to polarise the rest of India,” Rahul, whose silence had been creating unease in Opposition political circles, tweeted.

He added: “The Government should stop creating space for terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir and release all nationalist leaders as soon as possible.”

Rahul has said in the past that absence of pro-India leaders from the Kashmiri mainstream would create space for extremist forces. On Tuesday, he linked the Kashmir crisis to the BJP’s larger agenda of exploiting it for electoral gain in the rest of India.

The BJP has instructed its leaders to make the decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status the main electoral plank in poll-bound Haryana and Maharashtra. The government has presented the decision as the completion of an unfinished political agenda after Independence.

Although the unilateral decision, without consulting Jammu and Kashmir, followed by the unprecedented lockdown in the Valley, has created deep anguish among the local population, the BJP has sensed that the masses across the country support the move. The BJP has presented this as the culmination of the integration process.

The Congress, too, had to grapple with an intense internal churn as many leaders felt the need to align with the popular sentiment, but the top leadership decided not to ignore the violation of constitutionalism and the federal spirit and the subsequent miseries heaped upon over eight million people.

While leaders like former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for instance, openly supported the Narendra Modi government, even others considered close to the central leadership, like Jyotiraditya Scindia, chose to publicly express their dilemmas.

The core leadership stood firm, refusing to bow to the abnormal pressures of populist political adventurism. Despite knowing that it was always difficult to convey nuanced political positioning to the masses, which is easily appreciated by the intelligentsia, the top leadership ran the risk of sticking to the moral and constitutional position.

Kashmir is under lockdown for over 40 days and reports of protests, violence and torture are filtering out despite an exceptional crackdown. The international media has widely reported on the troubling ground reality.

Rahul’s tweet reaffirms the party’s decision to stick to constitutional morality against the tide of popular sentiment.

The Congress on Tuesday posted this message: “When asked in Parliament, the Home Minister (Amit Shah) made a statement that former Chief Minister (Farooq Abdullah) was not detained or arrested. Now we are told he is arrested under PSA (Public Safety Act)? Did Home Minister lie on the floor of the House? Isn’t it severe breach of Privilege?”

Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said: “I strongly condemn it (putting Farooq under the PSA). It is most unfortunate that a former chief minister of one of the oldest political parties in Kashmir has been detained. Each chief minister, and each political party, be it the Congress, the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, in Jammu and Kashmir have tried their level best to fight militancy.”

Azad added: “If there is no militancy today, it is because of these political parties and not the BJP. If political leaders who fought against militancy and separatists for the unity and integrity of the country are put behind bars under the PSA, it is the misfortune of the country.”

Former home minister P. Chidambaram, who is in jail, also sent out this message: “I have asked my family to tweet on my behalf the following: ‘I condemn the detention of Farooq Abdullah under PSA. There is no one in Kashmir more devoted to the idea of a united India of which J&K is an integral part than Farooq Abdullah. I have been reading news stories about protest movements across the world in Moscow, Hong Kong, France, Slovakia, Algeria, Myanmar, Romania and so on. The cry is for freedom. As a young Slovakian said, ‘The fight for freedom is a never-ending process’.”