‘BJP youth wing chief not insensitive to martyr’

SHIMLA - A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Saturday dismissed allegations that the party’s youth wing’s new chief Anurag Thakur was insensitive towards a martyred paramilitary trooper, saying such accusations were the “handiwork of political opponents” to defame the party.

The opposition Congress in the state said Thakur was celebrating his appointment as the youth wing chief when the funeral of Pankaj Bhadiyal, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper, was taking place just half a kilometre away at Sanot village in Kangra district Thursday.

Bhadiyal was among the 27 security personnel killed by Maoists in Chhattisgarh.

“No disrespect was shown to the martyr and if anything happened it was unintentional and should not have happened,” Satyapal Jain, in-charge of state party affairs, told reporters here.

Thakur, son of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and an MP from Hamirpur, visited Bhadiyal’s family after the celebrations.

Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur Friday said: “It’s totally insensitive. If the celebrations were planned in advance, they should have been postponed or cancelled as a mark of respect towards the national hero.”

When the controversy came to the fore Friday, Dhumal visited Bhadiyal’s house and expressed heart-felt sympathies to the family members.

He gave Rs.100,000 as financial assistance to the family from the Chief Minister’s Sainik Welfare Fund.