People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti addresses the gathering during the party workers convention, at Sher-e-Kashmir Park in Srinagar on April 17, 2025
| Photo Credit: ANI
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday (April 17, 2025) voiced strong opposition to the Waqf (Amendment) Act, pledging support to the country’s Muslims and warned the Centre against alienating the community which, she said, had consciously chosen India.
Addressing a party convention in Srinagar, Ms. Mufti recalled a time over a decade ago when she believed Muslims felt safer in India than elsewhere. “Muslims held the hand of India consciously. I warn against hurting the same hands. For the country’s progress, the government needs to see ahead and not backwards. Attacking ties of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others, will cost the country. It may lead to disintegration,” she said.
Calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the government’s approach towards Muslims, Ms. Mufti referred to the 2002 Gujarat riots, suggesting Mr. Modi had been given a chance “to repent”. She alleged that Muslim properties continued to be demolished and that graveyards and old mosques were being targeted. “Even the graveyards are being usurped under the Waqf [Amendment] Act. Mosques that are more than 100 or 300 years old are being demolished,” she claimed.
Ms. Mufti remarked that while Muslims might be employed in modest jobs (”puncture-wallas”), they worked with dignity. Praising the community’s traditional skills, she said that “Allah bestowed Muslims with crafts.” She later on expressed her sadness with contemporary India, which in her view, reflected Nathuram Godse’s ideology more than that of Mahatma Gandhi or Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
The PDP president said that Kashmiris “regret the migration of Kashmiri Pandits” from the Valley in the 1990s, and she cautioned the BJP against creating a similar sense of fear among Muslims elsewhere in India. “Don’t make Indian Muslims feel what Pandits felt decades ago. Don’t build fear into their lives,” she urged.
Ms. Mufti accused the Central government of punishing present-day Muslims for the Mughal rule, stating that “India neither belongs to Godse nor the Mughals. It belongs to people who fought for India’s independence, whether it was Bhagat Singh or Ashfaqulla Khan.” She dismissed attempts to trace Mughal lineage to ordinary Muslims. “Mughals never married into poor Muslims. In case you want to trace the Mughal offsprings, look around they would be found in royal families. There is no need to dig graves,” she added.
Reaffirming her opposition to the Waqf (Amendment) Act, Ms. Mufti expressed hope that the Supreme Court would consider the “collective conscience of Muslims” in its final verdict on related matters.
She also appealed to Muslims nationwide, specifically referencing recent events in West Bengal, “not to resort to violence”. “What happened in Murshidabad was wrong. Your any act of violence gives the adversary a chance to malign your image and also weaken the secular leadership,” Ms. Mufti cautioned.
Questioning the BJP’s narrative of restored peace in Jammu and Kashmir, Ms. Mufti cited the denial of permission for pro-Palestine or anti-Waqf (Amendment) Act marches as examples. She compared the Centre’s current stance in J&K to that of the separatist Hurriyat Conference in 2016, accusing both of refusing dialogue while relying on coercive power. “The Hurriyat was riding high on stone-pelting and guns, the BJP was riding high on UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act], Public Safety Act, raids, denying passports, jailing youth and terminating the employees,” she alleged. “The BJP is just repeating mistakes. This won’t work,” she said.
Responding to purported revelations by former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief A.S. Dulat in a new book, the PDP president said she was “not surprised”. “When we allied with the BJP in 2014, the NC [National Conference] leadership was meeting the BJP in the dead of night to form an unconditional government,” she said.
Published – April 17, 2025 04:58 pm IST