Former J&K chief minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti on Friday attacked the BJP over Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone incident and said while Kashmiri Muslims were often accused of being ‘silent spectators’ when the Kashmir Pandits had to flee the Valley, the silence of the ‘majority community’ in India is also criminal. The comment comes in the context of the Ram Navami violence in Khargone in which dozens of houses, and vehicles were set on fire. The district administration and the police demolished illegal buildings of the miscreants involved in the attack on the Ram Navami procession.
The razing of the ‘illegal’ houses has become a controversy with the opposition cornering the Shivraj Singh government of victimising the minority community.
“The vengeance with which BJP is bulldozing India’s Constitution has now reached the homes of minorities. BJP leaders are outdoing each other in stripping Muslims of everything be it their homes, livelihood and dignity,” Mehbooba Mufti said.
“As Kashmiri Muslims we are often accused of being silent spectators while Kashmiri Pandits were forced to flee. But the criminal silence of the majority community in today’s India while BJP wrecks the very idea of India is deeply worrying and problematic,” the Kashmir leader added.
The reference to the Kashmiri Pandit issue is in the context of Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ movie which has renewed conversations about the tragedy of the Hindus in Kashmir.
Amid continued criticism, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan defended the district administration’s decision to demolish the ‘illegal’ structures and asked, “Shouldn’t bulldozers be used against those who trouble the poor…?”