“These are the worst days for the country”, saidformer Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday, reacting toremarks on former Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare by Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal and an accused in the 2008 Malegaonblast case.
“I think these are the worst days for our country that youare giving such a choice of candidates to the people who use such languageagainst a martyr like Hemant Karkare,” Mehbooba told reporters here.
Thakur on Friday said Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbaimilitant attacks as she had cursed him for treating her badly.
Karkare, along with two other senior police officers, waskilled while fighting militants during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in November2008.
The BJP on Wednesday had fielded Thakur from the Bhopalparliamentary seat, where she is set to have a direct contest with the Congressheavyweight and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh.
Mehbooba asked the BJP what the party wanted to convey tothe people of the country by fielding a candidate like Thakur?
“What do you want to convey to the people by fieldingin the elections a lady against whom there is a charge sheet and such gravecharges and who was in jail? That whatever the lady stands for, the BJP standsfor those things?” the PDP president said.
She also termed as a “huge setback” the suspensionof the cross-LoC trade between India and Pakistan.
“This is a huge setback. All the work done by (formerPM Atal Bihari) Vajpayee, whatever he has done, it seems that (Prime MinisterNarendra) Modi wants to demolish all that. The present NDA government wants toturn upside down and demolish all of Vajpayee’s CBMs and steps whetherpolitical or others like the negotiations or dialogue with Pakistan, ordialogue in J-K and opening of routes and trade,” Mehbooba said.