PDP MP writes open letter to Modi, says Muslims feel insecure
Ahead of the Prime Minister’s rally in Srinagar, senior PDP leader and Member of Parliament Muzaffar Hussain Baig has said people in the Muslim-majority J&K were feeling “insecure” and the general perception is that the only thing PDP-BJP alliance has so far achieved is “further alienation, mistrust and cynicism.”
Baig, who is not attending the rally on Saturday, has appealed to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to rise to the occasion and send a message of “peace and tolerance”.
“The alliance and government was formed in an atmosphere of a great deal of cynicism prevalent in Kashmir. The ambivalence had its roots in the perceived incompatibility of the BJP and the PDP,” said Baig in an open letter to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister. Baig and another party MP Tariq Karra have not been attending the party’s meeting after the formation of the government.
Citing many incidents, including the growing intolerance across the country, Baig has written in the letter that “a couple of things happened in succession after the formation of the alliance government that did not help the situation”.
“What has happened in our state and in some other states, in the recent past, and the statements that have been made by certain highly placed persons in politics bring no credit to our commonly shared policy, our values and our civilisation,” the PDP MP said in the letter.
Baig further goes on to say: “On the practical plane, the scourge of intolerance has heightened intolerance and the malaise of mistrust has deepened…. In this Muslim majority state, the sense of insecurity that prevails today has never been witnessed before.”
Urging both Modi and Mufti to rise to the occasion, Baig has said that the “only justification for the PDP-BJP alliance shall disappear if you (PM & CM) fail to use your legal and moral authority to curb this scourge in real time”.
“These declarations from leaders like you have to be followed by strict action in law against violators. The constitutional ideal of equality and liberty must come alive and prevail,” Baig said.
