Sayeed Muhammad: Hours into of a cabinet shuffle in Jammu and Kashmir, new Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta debuted in an unprecedented manner on the Kathua eight-year-old’s rape and murder as he termed it a minor incident. “Rasana is a chhoti si baat (minor)… We have to think this should never happen again and the child gets justice. There are many challenges like this facing the government. We should not give Rasana so much bhaav (importance),” he said yesterday, reports NDTV. His comments raised questions particularly as the rejig was blamed on the massive criticism of previous ministers for their perceived support to the men who have been arrested for kidnapping, drugging, gang-raping and murdering the child belonging to a Muslim nomadic tribe. Gupta replaced Nirmal Singh in the post of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s number 2. Apart from him, state BJP chief Sat Paul Sharma and six others were sworn in as ministers. Two BJP ministers, Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, had resigned earlier in April after they were criticised for taking part in a rally in support of the Kathua accused. The BJP had on April 17 asked all its nine ministers in the PDP-BJP government in the state to submit their resignations so new faces could be brought in. The resignations had not, however, been forwarded to the governor.
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