The death of 40 CRPF soldiers in last week's terrorist attack in Pulwama has largely been left out of mudslinging matches between politicians.

Largely, yes, but not entirely.

Take, for instance, a Monday afternoon tweet sent out to over 9 million followers by Akhilesh Yadav, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. "Every day", he wrote, "we get news of the brave martyrdom of our jawans while smiling BJP politicians accompany their funeral processions."

"Why is the government waiting and watching?"

Till when will the 3 day period of mourning keep getting extended?



Everyday we get news of the brave martyrdom of our jawans while smiling BJP politicians accompany their funeral processions. Why is the govt waiting and watching? #PulwamaAttack https://t.co/faYsVrCJpi Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 18, 2019

Akhilesh Yadav's tweet came soon after four Army men, including a major, were martyred in an encounter in Pulwama. (Two terrorists, including the mastermind of the Pulwama attack, were also killed.)

Also on Monday, leaders from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), an opposition party in Punjab, burned photos of Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu before the start of the state assembly's budget session.

One of them, Bikram Singh Majithia, said that after passing a unanimous resolution in the House condemning the Pulwama attack, Navjot Sidhu was still saying, "You cannot blame Pakistan, you cannot blame [an] individual". He said his party wanted Sidhu sacked from the cabinet.

MLAs from the SAD and the BJP wore black badges and tried to interrupt Sidhu in the House. He and Bikram Singh Majithia were, in fact, involved in a verbal duel. The Speaker asked them not to disrupt Question Hour.

'WHO RELEASED MASOOD AZHAR IN 1999?'

Navjot Sidhu, meanwhile, took aim at former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's BJP government on Monday, asking who released Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in 1999.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed was the terrorist group that carried out the Pulwama attack.

But what was Navjot Sidhu taking about? He was referring to the fact that the Vajypayee government was forced to release three terrorists, including Masood Azhar, to save the lives of more than 180 passengers and crew on board a hijacked plane.

There have been other examples of politicisation, too. The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP that can best be described as a 'frenemy', said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana that "waves of anger and political triumphs" had neither solved the Kashmir issue not stopped the killing of soldiers. It said that Pakistan was carrying out attacks on Indian soil while the government patted itself for "isolating" Islamabad at the international level.

In Assam, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal likened the Pulwama attack to "the attack of the Mughals" on Sunday. Amit Shah, the BJP president, said at the CRPF personnel's sacrifice wouldn't go in vain as there was a BJP government, and not a Congress administration, at the Centre.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Sunday that the BJP had politicised the Pulwama attack, and was using it to attack opposition parties.

Inputs from PTI