Kathua rape, a minor incident, says J&K's new Deputy CM Kavinder Gupta

Srinagar: Five new BJP faces, including former Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta, were on Monday inducted into the council of ministers led by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, to keep its strength in the PDP-BJP coalition government static at 11.

Mr Gupta is the new deputy chief minister, replacing Dr Nirmal Singh, who had resigned Sunday evening ahead of the much-anticipated reshuffle. The BJP also dropped health and medical education minister Bali Bhagat and MoS education and tourism Priya Sethi.

Party sources said Dr Nirmal Singh is likely to be made the new Speaker.

The new deputy CM, Kavinder Gupta, stirred a fresh controversy on Monday by terming the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old nomad girl in Kathua as a “minor incident”. Hours after being sworn in, Mr Gupta said in an interview: “Kathua maamla ek choti si baat hai usko itni tuul deni nahi chahiye (The Kathua incident was a small thing, it shouldn’t have been given all this hype)”.

The Congress said Mr Gupta’s describing the horrific and shameful gangrape-murder as a “small incident” is a deliberate attempt on the part of the BJP and its leadership to justify it and thwart delivery of justice. Later on Monday, however, Mr Gupta said his remarks were “misconstrued”, and blamed the media for reporting his statements in the “wrong way”.