Jammu and Kashmir was a lab for BJP, country risks Kashmirisation: Mehbooba Mufti

Mehbooba Mufti

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said the state she had ruled, now stripped of its special status and divided into two Union territories, was a "laboratory" for the ruling BJP at the Centre. Talking to reporters at a press conference in Patna, a day after the opposition meeting, Mufti voiced fear of "Kashmirisation" of the entire country if the party returned to power.

"There is, indeed, an attack on the idea of India. It was most evident when they abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and put its leaders, including three former chief ministers, in jail", said Mufti, who was the last CM of the state. "J&K was a laboratory. What we see in Delhi today, by way of the central ordinance, started much earlier in our state. Unfortunately, few people understood it back then," alleged Mufti, who heads the People's Democratic Party.

"The BJP, if it returns to power in 2024, will trample upon the Constitution and undertake Kashmirisation of the whole country," said the vice-chairperson of the Gupkar Declaration, who had run a coalition government with the saffron party, before resigning. Asked about the long history of violence in the state, she shot back "Why do you not talk about Manipur where 200 people have died in the current spate of ethnic strife? Just because it is ruled by BJP?"

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