Peoples Democratic Party president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said that BJP was attempting to turn Jammu and Kashmir into a theatre of war for electoral gains and that it would be fervently opposed and foiled by her party. She said the central government was resorting to “repressive policies of criminalizing dissent, bundling people in jails and banning religious outfits.”
Chaired by the party president, PDP on Saturday held ameeting of its top leadership in Srinagar to discuss the prevailing politicalsituation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting witnessed participation of all senior partyfunctionaries including parliament members, former ministers and legislators.
In her address, Mehbooba Mufti expressed serious concernover the prevailing situation in the state and said “the repressive measuresand iron fist approach are being rigorously implemented with common massesthreatened, intimated and harassed by the government at large.”
She said that soon after the Pulwama attack last month,there are attempts being made to intimidate the people of Kashmir with PrimeMinister Modi on television declaring air strikes against Pakistan as pilotproject and threatening that more was yet to come.
“Whom is PM Modi trying to threaten with such war mongering?Due to such a ruthless smear campaign, Kashmiri students outside JK aretargeted, traders harassed all across and inside Kashmir religious outfits arebanned with clerics bundled in jails like criminals,” Mehbooba said.
Mehbooba also reiterated PDP’s stand vis-a-vis banning thesocio-political and religious organization Jamaat-e-Islami, terming such ameasure as undemocratic, unconstitutional and an attempt to hurt the religioussentiments of Muslims all across.
“We have been saying this since day one that Jamaat-e-Islamiis an idea. Ideas cannot be chained, banned or killed. Ideas are bulletproof,and in democracy ideas are allowed to flourish and not choked. What the BJP isdoing at present is nothing but a clear vendetta against anyone who dares tooppose its policies,” Mehbooba said in her address.
The PDP president added that her party will remain in theforefront to oppose any move aimed at harassing, suppressing and targeting thepeople of state and that the policies being adopted by the central leadershiptowards the state are turning the already crises ridden region into a veritableinferno.
“Jamaat-e-Islami has been credited for running schools andis a socio- religious organization which is totally non-violent and theorganization has on many occasions publicly disapproved of violence as a methodof political struggle. Banning it will further shrink the space for politicsand dialogue and it seems that government of India is now completely dependingon force as a measure to subjugate the people of state. However, it has tounderstand that no muscular policy will work as it has never worked in the pastand it will never work in future also,” she said and added that she will notallow Jammu and Kashmir to turn into a theatre of war for BJP’s electoralgains.
She also said that the central government is pushing thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir into a corner while their constitutional rights arebeing trampled upon. She said that need of the hour is that the Government ofIndia stops this muscular policy and understands that dialogue is the only wayforward.