‘Wahabism replacing Sufism in Kashmir’

NEW DELHI : Hardline Islamist movements such as Wahabism have dislocated Sufism from Kashmir, where the demand for political autonomy has now emerged as an Islamist movement, union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

Commenting on the orthodox ideology, now prevalent, he said, there has been a churning in the Islamic forces that has made a forceful worldwide appearance. “This churning since the last 15-20 years has had some impact in India as well, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, in the secessionist movement in the state. In the Kashmir Valley that was a centre of Sufism, Wahabism has replaced it,” he said.

Jaitley was speaking at a national seminar on Integral Humanism-Indian Way of Attaining Sustainable Development, organised by a Sangh think tank, the Deen Dayal Upadhayay Research Institute in collaboration with the ministry of culture.

He also flagged a convergence between the “IS-like elements and the ultra Left”, which was “manifest in the anti-India sloganeering” on Jawaharlal Nehru University’s campus in 2016.

“The JNU incident was a convergence between these two (ultra Left and IS)…and you can see it in many places. I am stressing on it because the ideology that Deen Dayal Upadhyaya stood for or we represent is being opposed by the ideology that is a convergence of these two,” Jaitley said.

He said there are many examples of this convergence, which is making attempts to lay down an ideological agenda. “There is an attempt by this converged alliance to make this country a weak and helpless state…” he said.

He made a reference to Kashmir again. “…There has been a school of thought that whenever there is an encounter of a terrorist not in the country, but in the disturbed areas such as Manipur or Kashmir and if any officer of the armed forces is involved then there should be a trial against him…Make them helpless..”