Gandhi's India is becoming Godse's India: Mufti

MEHBOOBA Mufti, former chief minister of the former Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and supremo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday (7) said the India of Gandhi is turning into an India of Godse.

Referring to the recent incidents when action was initiated against those who cheered for Pakistan during a game between India and Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, she said the situation was different in times of former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee when the citizens of the two neighbouring countries cheered for each other.

(FILES) In this picture taken on July 15, 2001, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is greeted by then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee prior to summit talks at the Jaypee Palace Hotel in Agra, India. (Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

“I remember a cricket match between India and Pakistan during Vajpayee ji's era, where citizens of Pakistan were cheering for India and citizens of India were cheering for Pakistan. And former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf also praised the then Indian captain MS Dhoni,” the 62-yeard-old Mufti, who is a staunch critic of the current Narendra Modi government’s policy on Kashmir, said.

“But some days ago in Agra, when some youngsters cheered for the Pakistan cricket team during a match with India, not a single lawyer is ready to take their case, so it feels like Gandhi’s India is turning into Godse’s India,” she said.

Godse was the Hindu nationalist who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948, months after India got its independence.

Mufti also said that she has “never seen a greater statesman than Vajpayee”. She said, “He visited Pakistan twice. He knew dialogue is the way forward.”

Vajpayee also belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party of current prime minister Modi, and had taken a number of peace initiatives vis-à-vis Pakistan with which India shares a rocky relationship for seven decades now.

Mufti, who has been critical of the Modi government’s decision of revoking Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which had given it a special status and brought it under the direct rule of New Delhi, urged the central government to restore the article along with Article 35A and said Kashmir cannot be kept with India by using muscle power.

“We decided to go with India of Gandhi Ji, which gave us Article 370, Article 35A and our own flag...If you want to keep Jammu and Kashmir with you, reinstate Article 370 and Article 35A and solve the Kashmir issue. You cannot keep Kashmir with you by using muscle power,” Mufti said while speaking at a public rally at Banihal in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.

She added, “It took India 200 years to get independence from the British and BJP took 70 years to remove Article 370 unconstitutionally. We may take 70 months but we will compel the Indian government to return not only Article 370 but resolve the Kashmir issue as well for which our youth sacrificed their lives.”