*ISLAMABAD – Critics of India’s ruling party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)– are being labelled as traitors while receiving a severe backlash frompublic and the government alike in the wake of recent escalations betweenNew Delhi and Islamabad since last month, a Washington Post report said.*

In an article titled “In India, a search for ‘traitors’ after conflict withPakistanlink,”its is stated, “A wave of angry nationalism has swept India in recentweeks, triggered by a Feb. 14 suicide bombing that killed 40 Indiansecurity personnel in the disputed region of Kashmir and then by a militaryconfrontation with Pakistan, the country’s oldest foe.”

The article further points out the negative role played by the Indian mediaasking “for revenge” and portraying “any questioning of the Indiangovernment or armed forces as equivalent to helping Pakistan.”

“One particularly strident channel recently pushed the hashtag#ExposePakLovers.”

In recent weeks, some of those publicly critical of the government orIndia’s military have been suspended from their jobs.

The article also notes that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has alsotagged opposition parties as “disloyal for asking about the efficacy ofIndia’s Feb. 26 retaliatory airstrike on Pakistan.”

The report also reveals that “in recent weeks, some of those publiclycritical of the government or India’s military have been suspended fromtheir jobs.”

Incorporating several cases of folks in India slamming the leadership, thereport says that all of such critics are being cyber-harassed, trolled andeven bullied in real life.

According to a journalist that the American publication quoted, the Indiangovernment had spearheaded a move that “had ‘stampeded the country into avolatile, edgy, anxious nationalism’”.