BJP leader Ram Madhav said it is unfair to keep asking people to prove their patriotism.
People cannot be put to a daily test of patriotism, senior BJP leader Ram Madhav said to NDTV in a comment on a Delhi minister's recent attack on Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
But the BJP leader said he spoke not just of Mehbooba Mufti. "You cannot put people to a daily patriotism test. You can't ask them to prove their patriotism every day. They are responsible people holding responsible positions," said Mr Madhav, who is in charge of managing the BJP's alliance with Ms Mufti's People's Democratic Party or PDP in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Challenge a person on issues...question him...but if you ask him to prove his patriotism every day in a TV studio, then that is unfair," he said. It was akin, Mr Madhav said, to BJP leaders being asked to prove every day that they are "not communal".
The Aam Aadmi Party's Kapil Mishra, Delhi's Tourism Minister, had at a recent function in the capital accosted Ms Mufti with the question, "Do you believe Burhan Wani was a terrorist or not," referring to the 22-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist killed by security forces in Kashmir earlier this year.
Ms Mufti, Ram Madhav said, was confronted with such questions regularly for some time now and she had handled "such situations with great maturity and she has been consistent. She is very clear in her head about such issues. She has no ambiguities about the issue."
As chief Minister, Ram Madhav said, Mehbooba Mufti had to take care of not only Kashmir's law and order situation, but also "the sentiments of six lakh people."
Wani's death in July triggered violent protests in Kashmir. More than 90 people have been killed and over 10,000 injured in clashes between protesters and security forces.
Mehbooba Mufti has drawn criticism for saying that Burhan Wani would "have been given a chance" had security forces been aware of his identity.
Ms Mufti, who has been accused by opposition parties like Omar Abdullah's National Conference of mishandling the Kashmir unrest, got a vote of confidence from Ram Madhav. The Jammu and Kashmir chief minister is "doing a good job," he said.