Journalism of Courage
PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said Saturday that the BJP would bulldoze the country’s Constitution and that judges were afraid of giving bail even to innocent people.
She was addressing a group of party leaders on the seventh death anniversary of her father and PDP founder, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, at his cemetery in south Kashmir’s Bijbehara town.
“We want to tell the people of our country that the BJP assaulted our constitution. But in the coming days, they will destroy the constitution of the country. They have destroyed our flag, and in the coming days the tricolour, for which the people of our country have shed their blood, will be replaced with a saffron flag,” Mufti said in her address. “They (BJP) have not just destroyed the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir; they have bulldozed the constitution of India as well.”
Mufti also took a dig at the courts of the country saying the judges were afraid of giving bail even to innocent people. “There was a time when the court ruled against Indira Gandhi. That was a court and today the Chief Justice of India says that the courts are afraid of giving bail,” she said. “Think over it. There was a court, during the time of Indira-ji, during the time of the Congress, that ruled against the prime minister of the time and today the courts are afraid of giving bail to innocent people. I am not saying this; the Chief Justice of India is saying this.”
The former chief minister, a vocal critic of the BJP since it quit the ruling alliance with her PDP, said her father had joined hands with a secular India. “Mufti Mohammad Sayeed believed in the idea of India. He had a vision,” she said. “He knew he had joined hands with the India whose leader was Gandhiji, who gave his life for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood.”
Mufti said the times had changed and that Kashmir was passing through a tough phase. She asked her party leaders to reach out to the people and visit families that suffer because of government policies.
“There was a time when I withdrew 12,000 FIRs when I managed [to get] a dialogue offer (from the Centre), when I managed a ceasefire for a month, when I dropped two (BJP) ministers (from the cabinet). But today if someone is arrested, he is sent outside the Valley. What can you do? After a few days, you can (at least) visit the family. If some house is raided, go there,” she told the party leaders.
“Don’t say that he was a thief and what else could have happened to him. Today if someone is being terminated from his job, it is not because he is a thief. Today the land of farmers is being taken not because they have done something wrong. Today businessmen are being raided not because they are corrupt. This all happens because they are Kashmiris,” the PDP chief said.
