As Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally in Srinagar, former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti alleged that government employees were “forced to attend” the event to project a false image of normalcy and provide a good crowd.
Thousands of people, mostly Bharatiya Janata Party workers and government employees, thronged Bakshi Stadium amid tight security. Some of the employees at the rally corroborated the charges of coercion.
A municipal council employee from frontier district of Kupwara said that they left at 3 am in the wee hours and were transported in buses. “We were told that there will be consequences if we don’t attend the rally. Since morning we were given an egg to eat,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said in a post on X that government employees were being herded at five am in sub-zero temperatures into vehicles at Budgam bus stand ferrying them to the PM’s rally.
“Disheartening to see employees being forcibly mobilised to paint a pretty picture that all is well post 2019 & that people here are celebrating their own collective disempowerment & humiliation,” the post read.
Mehbooba said that the development stands contrary to earlier visits by previous PMs like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh at the peak of insurgency. “Common people then thronged to the venues with great enthusiasm and returned with hope in their hearts. But this time, Kashmiris know that everything spoken at Bakshi stadium will be to showcase the so called benefits of illegal abrogation of Article 370 akin to putting salt to their wounds. This visit is only meant to address and drum support among BJP’s core constituency in the rest of India for the upcoming parliament elections,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Mehbooba said that the development stands contrary to earlier visits by previous PMs like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh at the peak of insurgency. “Common people then thronged to the venues with great enthusiasm and returned with hope in their hearts. But this time, Kashmiris know that everything spoken at Bakshi stadium will be to showcase the so called benefits of illegal abrogation of Article 370 akin to putting salt to their wounds. This visit is only meant to address and drum support among BJP’s core constituency in the rest of India for the upcoming parliament elections,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Communist Party of India (CPI Marxist) leader MY Tarigami, in a post on X, said that the administration was operating akin to “BJP parachraks”.
On Wednesday evening, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah said that the “godi media and agencies” would be gushing about the “historic crowd” to hear PM Modi in Srinagar.
“What they will conveniently forget to mention is that almost none of the people there will be attending of their own free will. The dictatorial administration has pulled out all stops to give the PM a crowd because the BJP can’t manage anything in J&K without the administration. Employees, men and women both, in their 1.000s are being asked to assemble between 4.30am and 5.30 am in the freezing temperatures to be bused to the venue,” Abdullah said .
“Employees who don’t show up are being threatened with disciplinary action by their department heads. Private schools like DPS Etc have had their buses commandeered to transport all these employees to the venue,” he alleged.
Another employee working in the agriculture department in Pulwama said that he was part of the 30 employees who were brought in a bus early in the morning. “It was a compulsion to come here. Most of the people in the rally were government employees who wanted to save themselves or their jobs from getting into any trouble,” he said.
However, lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, while addressing the gathering at Bakshi Stadium, said that the people have gathered out of love for PM Modi.