BJP has no courage to speak up against China: Mehbooba Mufti
In a scathing attack on the Centre, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said that the government has suppressed people in Jammu and Kashmir but has “no guts to speak up against China that has occupied 1,000 kilometres” in Ladakh.
She was addressing the party workers ahead of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) meet at Farooq Abdullah’s Bhatindi residence here on Saturday.
“China has taken over 1,000km in Ladakh region but the government continues to hold talks with them. The Chinese army has killed 20 soldiers in Ladakh, but still, they (BJP) don’t speak a word against them,” she said adding that despite the Chinese army constructing permanent barracks and buildings in the occupied territory, the government is not even taking the name of China.
Mentioning the eighth round of talks being held between India and China on Friday, she said, “You talk to China but you don’t talk to people of Jammu and Kashmir whose identity, culture and land you have destroyed. Today our country is not being run in accordance with the Constitution but on the BJP agenda. They have shredded the constitution of Dr BR Ambedkar into pieces.”
The PDP leader recalled how her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed used to travel by the length and breadth of the region in scorching summers because he believed that Jammu and Kashmir are two indispensable parts of the same body.
“We could have easily formed government with Congress but that would have been an insult to the mandate of the people of Jammu. People in Kashmir said that PDP joined hands with a communal party and an anti-Muslim party. They said that this party demolished Babri Masjid but Mufti Sahib went ahead with his decision and formed the government with BJP,” she said.
She added that the government has done away with laws that would protect land and jobs of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Special status of J&K, a brainchild of Maharaja Hari Singh to protect the identity and culture of Dogras, was snatched in the dead of the night,” Mufti added.
In her speech, she said that she will take this struggle to its logical conclusion. “Remember, a time will come when Articles 370, 35-A, and the special status of J&K will be restored. The BJP is holding Tricolour in their hands but they want to destroy India and they have glued their eyes on J&K, which is nothing but a ploy to garner votes,” the PDP leader said.