Kashmiri leaders slam Nitish Kumar for pulling down veil of woman doctor

Politicians in Kashmir lashed out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for pulling down the veil off a Muslim AYUSH doctor’s face during a government event. People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti questioned Kumar’s continuation in office after the act.

“Having personally known and admired Nitishji, I was shocked to see him pull down a young Muslim woman’s niqab. Does one attribute it to old age or the normalisation of humiliating Muslims publicly?” Mufti said in a social media post.

“The fact that people around him watched this horrific incident unfold as some form of entertainment is even more unsettling. Nitish Sahab, perhaps it’s time you step down?” she wrote. CPI(M) MLA from Kulgam, MY Tarigami, said Kumar’s action was a violation of constitutional and democratic norms.

“A video circulating on social media shows Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pulling down the naqaab of a Muslim woman. Such an act deserves unequivocal condemnation as a violation of religious freedom and personal dignity. It is against the spirit of the Constitution and democratic norms,” Tarigami said.

Calling the act “shameful,” PDP leader Iltija Mufti said Kumar should step down with decency and dignity if his health was not good. “This is a shameful act. We respect Nitishji because he is an old man. But if you are that old that, God forbid, you have become senile — that on one hand you award her a degree and on the other you bring her veil down — then step down,” Mufti told reporters. Iltija said Kumar is the chief minister of a State where many Muslims reside.

“Don’t you know what it means for a Muslim woman who puts on her veil? Just because you are the chief minister, you have no right to bring her veil down,” she said. She criticised the behaviour of people present at the venue during the incident.

“See how people there with Nitishji were laughing, they thought of it as a joke. Bihar’s deputy chief minister, who is a BJP leader, was laughing. I want to ask them: If we had pulled a ghoongat (traditional veil worn by a Hindu woman after marriage) of a woman, how would you have felt?” The PDP leader warned Kumar against repeating the action.

“I respect Nitish Kumar because he is an elder. That is why I am not saying much. But if you do it next time, then we won’t care. It does not become your right to pull off a Muslim woman’s veil and mock her. Power does not give you the right to humiliate Muslims,” she said.

The PDP leader said Kumar is a senior citizen and “if your health is not good, then please step down with decency and dignity.”