Former Jammu-Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said that if standing up for her people makes her an “anti-national”, she’ll wear the “badge with honour”.
She was reacting to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s charge that “mainstream parties of Kashmir create a separatist psyche and not acceptable to New India”.
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“Unacceptable is a new India where those who kill and lynch in the name of religion are feted and garlanded,” Mufti said.
“If standing up for my people makes me a separatist and anti national then its a badge I will wear with honour [sic],” she added.
Jaitley was commenting on National Conference leader Omar Abdullah’s remarks at a rally where he said that the political parties in Kashmir will bring back the post of Prime Minister.
“Our identity will be separate. Our law is different. Our business is different. God willing, we will bring back our PM,” he said at an election rally in Bandipore while commenting in support of Article 35-A.
Mufti, the chief of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had on Tuesday threatened that the state will secede from the Indian Union if the Article 370 is abrogated.
Slamming BJP president Amit Shah’s reported remark that his party remains firm on its stand on Article 370 and Article 35-A.
“Amit Shah sahib, you are daydreaming. Article 370 is a bridge between people of India and J-K. If you break this bridge, then we who take our oath on India’s Constitution and Constitution of J-K will not be able to hoist the flag of India on our shoulders,” she said at a worker’s meet in Handwara.
Later, speaking to media persons, Mufti also said that 2020 is a deadline from J-K to the country.
“2020 will also be the deadline from J-K to the nation. If the accession promises are not kept then the relation with the nation will be over,” she said.
Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament’s power to make laws concerning the state.