Mamata ‘tigress’, will not surrender, says Mehbooba
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday described West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a “tigress, saying the TMC chief is “very brave" and will not surrender.
Mufti was reacting to the Thursday’s ED searches at the office of the political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its director, Pratik Jain, in Kolkata. The action ignited high drama with the West Bengal chief minister storming at the raid site, alleging that the central agency was trying to seize the TMC’s sensitive data ahead of the state polls.
Mufti said that while such raids by ED or other investigative agencies have become a normal thing in Jammu and Kashmir, “the whole country is tasting it now.”
“When Article 370 was revoked, when raids took place and when three CMs were put behind bars, the majority of political parties maintained silence. Now, that is being witnessed across the country,” she added, referring to the detention of herself, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370.
“I am hopeful that Banerjee is very brave; she is a tigress, and she will effectively fight them and not surrender,” the PDP chief added.
Replying to a question about the demands for a separate state for the Jammu region, the former chief minister of J-K said such a move would not be right.
“The atmosphere that is being created in Jammu would mean that they negate the decision of the J-K to align with India by rejecting Jinnah’s two-nation theory. If they divide Jammu-Kashmir based on religion, that would mean Jinnah was right. If that happens, it will be a very wrong decision,” she said. Referring to the closure of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in the Reasi district of J-K, the PDP president said it was wrong, and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should have intervened.
“It is not a question of one Mata Vaishno Devi College; it can become a pattern as it is an experiment. All the experiments conducted in Jammu and Kashmir have been implemented across the country. Regrettably, Abdullah stated a day before that the college should be shut. Was it already discussed with the chief minister that he stated it, and then a day later, the order was issued?” she said.
She said the question now was not about transferring the students who were studying in the college, as that is the responsibility of the government, but about its impact.
“If this is repeated at other places and education is politicised in the name of religion, then what will happen? If our youth, especially Muslim youth, don’t get a place in J-K, then what will happen in Haryana or other states? If the family members are expelled from their own home, then what will others do?” she asked.
This move, Mufti said, can “encourage communal forces” in other places to “replicate” it.
“This is a totally wrong decision, and our chief minister should have opposed it. He should have taken up the matter with the central government because this decision was taken only to expel Kashmiri Muslim students. This move can encourage communal forces in other places, and they can replicate it,” she added.
