Mehbooba Mufti’s attitude makes one wonder the worst

There has been no evidence of Mufti expressing gratitude to the Indian nation for what it has been doing for her State for decades, pumping large finance subsidies year after year after year.

Ever since she became the Chief Minister of our Jammu & Kashmir State, she has been mollycoddling the “Separatist” clan living there, the terrorists in Pakistan who have been infiltrating into our land ever so often and the disguised terrorists living within us.

Thus, there has been no evidence of her restraining the Hurriyat’s multifarious activities, either publicly or personally on a one-to-one basis. No meeting with them when they were accused of burning schools. In fact, no FIR against them for any unholy activity of which they were widely suspected. There has been no evidence of her having met the stone pelters, whom she has called as “misguided youth, and, instead of punishment, they have been given amnesty. And there is no evidence of her sharing tea and sympathy for the Indian Army and its braves who have saved her State often enough from ravage and mayhem. Instead, she served Major Gogoi with an FIR for tying a mischief monger just to save his soldiers from a savage attack by a gang of stone pelting goons.

Section 3 of Jammu & Kashmir’s published Constitution says: “The Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.”

And, finally, there has been no evidence of her expressing gratitude to the Indian nation for what it has been doing for her State for decades, pumping large finance subsidies year after year after year. Only two times, one remembers, has she spoken graciously about India’s top leaders. One was praising Vajpayee for his philosophy of Kashmirayat, jambooriyat (democratic) and insaaniyat (humaneness) attitude to Jammu & Kashmir State; the second came after Prime Minister Modi’s Independence Day speech last year when he warmly welcomed that Kashmir should be thought of only in terms of na gaali na goli (neither abuse nor gun) — note the stress on her State alone.

Her latest maneuver has been to impose — courtesy our government in Delhi — a unilateral ceasefire during the Islamic festival of Ramzan. And never mind the brutal attack of stones and chairs on our CRPF jeep. She quickly dared to file an FIR against that vehicle’s driver whose speedy escape from the proposed attack resulted in the death of one of those pelting goons.

That has resulted in Ms. Mufti agonizingly saying “Talks (with Pakistan) are now the only solution.” Mani Shankar Aiyer and his entire Congress band must have been tickled with that.

What kind of an Indian Chief Minister is she who, when her own State’s perverts are at fault, she believes in “talks” with Pak?

It’s clear that Ms. Mufti is a graceless female, reluctant to talk about anything excepting her own State. India means little to her, it would seem.

Although a law graduate from the University of Kashmir, this 59-year-old Chief Minister does not remember her own State’s published Constitution which became a reality in November 1956. She does not remember that Sheikh Abdullah, the tallest leader ever of Kashmir, had asked his people to choose between allegiance to India, allegiance to Pakistan and Independence, but the Constituent Assembly chose the India allegiance. And the Sheikh welcomed it. And, Section 3 of that very Constitution says: “The Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.”

Further, Section 147 of that same Constitution prevents any amendment of that Section. It says that “no bill or amendment seeking to make any change in the provisions of section 3 shall be introduced or moved in either House of the Legislature” (of J&K State.)  Thus, Section 3 of the J&K State Constitution is not amendable. The J&K State shall forever remain an integral part of the Union of India. Period. Therefore, those ambitious Kashmir-lovers who are aiming to achieve “Azadi” for J&K will have to first decide what they will do with their existing Constitution, and how they will do that.

Let our Prime Minister not mollycoddle Pakistan in any sort of way, cease-fire or a surprise visit to the home of someone like Nawaz Sharif. Instead, we want him to be his usual daring self.

Will our Home Minister bring the above to Ms. Mufti’s knowledge? Will he, that simple man who tends to act as a simpleton so often, do that…please? Perhaps more importantly, will the daring Prime Minister do that himself? And why is he, such a bold man, so soft on Ms. Mufti — always? It is indeed an intriguing matter.

To me, this matter is as intriguing as Ms. Mufti’s fetish to forever keep her dupatta hiding her ears and head. Expert readers of the face and human mannerism who discover the hidden “insides” of a person could throw light on Ms. Mufti’s “secrets” which have largely remained unknown. Perhaps her dupatta obsession reveals that she is totally committed to Islam, after which Pakistan is named; perhaps she is hiding that, like her father, she is an ex-Congressi who loves Pak the Islamic State; perhaps she is hiding her unhappy marriage which ended in a bitter divorce; perhaps she is hiding that one of her two daughters, Iitija, is presently (as on 13th March 2018) working in the London Office of the High Commission of India, the country to which she is allergic.

Where to go from here? Perhaps we should send her to Islamabad for “talks” with Pakistan and ascertain just what deal Ms would like to get from that country and what they are willing to give in exchange. To ensure that she is comfortable with all those top soldiers, we can request Mani Shankar Aiyar to accompany her.

Meanwhile, let our Prime Minister not mollycoddle Pakistan in any sort of way, cease-fire or a surprise visit to the home of someone like Nawaz Sharif. Instead, we want him to be his usual daring self, Mehbooba or no Mehbooba; yes, we want only Bharat Mata ki Jai — with or without both, gali and goli.

But before that, he must cajole Ms. Mufti to watch the very short video of an ordinary Kashmiri citizen rebuking the Hurriyat leaders including Saeed Ahmed Gillani. That authentic video was shown at least ten times by the two popular English TV channels on June four.

Finally, Ms. Mufti must know the modern outlook on her obsession with kashmiriyat. If only she asks what that word denotes today, she will get the following answer:

“Kashmiriyat is the ethnonational and social consciousness and cultural values of the Kashmiri people. … However, scholar Christopher Snedden states that the concept of Kashmiriyat has been ‘romanticised’ and Kashmiriyat could not prevent antipathy and rivalry between the Kashmiri Pandits and the Kashmiri Muslims.” That is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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Arvind Lavakare

Arvind Lavakare has been a freelance writer since 1957. He has written and spoken on sports on radio and TV. He currently writes on political issues regularly. His writings include a book on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

His freelancing career began in "The Times of India" with a sports article published when he was a month shy of 20 years of age. He was also a regular political affairs columnist first for rediff.com for five years or so and then shifted to sify.com. He also wrote extensively for niticentral.com "till it stopped publication."

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