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Mehbooba Mufti's ‘forcibly mobilized’ charge on PM Modi's Srinagar rally
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had also accused the J&K administration of "pulling out all stops" to ensure a crowd for PM Modi's rally in Srinagar.
As scores of people from across Jammu and Kashmir thronged Srinagar's Bakshi Stadium to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally, People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday alleged that the government employees were being coerced into attending the event to project a false image of normalcy in the valley.
In a post on X, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister claimed the government employees were compelled to gather at five in the morning in sub-zero temperatures at Budgam bus stand, where they were transported to PM Modi's rally.
“Disheartening to see employees being forcibly mobilized to paint a pretty picture that all is well post 2019 & that people here are celebrating their own collective disempowerment & humiliation.”
She compared this alleged situation unfavourably to past visits by previous prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh during the peak of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. Mufti reminisced about how during those visits, common people attended the events with 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,” Mufti claimed.
“This visit is only meant to address & drum support amongst BJPs core constituency in the rest of India for the upcoming parliament elections,” she added.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had made a similar claim accusing the Jammu and Kashmir administration of "pulling out all stops" to ensure a crowd for Prime Minister Modi's rally in Srinagar and said the BJP would not be able to do so on its own.
"Employees, men and women in 1000s are being asked to assemble between 4:30 am and 5:30 am in the freezing temperatures to be bused to the venue. This participation isn't optional, it's compulsory. Employees who don't show up are been threatened with disciplinary action by their Dept heads," he said.
"Tomorrow the godi media and agencies will be gushing about the 'historic crowd' gathered 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 Jammu and Kashmir government has pulled out all stops to give the PM a crowd because the BJP can't manage anything in J-K without the administration," Abdullah said in a post on X.
