National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti castigated the BJP Sunday, accusing it of violating the Constitution, as the two former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers attended an INDIA bloc rally here in support of arrested Opposition leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren.
The ‘Loktantra Bachao’ (save democracy) rally was organised at the Ramlila Maidan here where Abdullah also asserted that they will continue to be part of the INDIA bloc “till our last breath”.
“What is our aim? Our only aim is to save the Constitution. There is an attack on the Constitution. Even the CJI (Chief Justice of India) is getting threats. This is our condition. People are being made to fight each other. You have to vote against this. You have to raise your voice. We will not leave the alliance till our last breath,” he told the audience.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mufti said the way opposition leaders are being put in jail makes it “Kalyug ka Amrit Kaal”.
“Today the country is going through a tough phase. The condition is such that people are straightaway being put into jail without. There is no due process, no lawyers. This is what is called “Kalyug ka Amrit Kaal” where people are put in jail.
“I am not talking about Umar Khalid who has been in jail for last two years or Sidheeq Kappan (a journalist who was arrested in 2020 and was released later). I am talking about your representatives whom you elect as MLAs, chief ministers, Lok Sabha members. They are slapped with corruption allegations, and put behind bars. We have seen this in Jammu and Kashmir over the last five years,” she said. “Those who flout laws and Constitution are not patriot but an anti-national. Jammu and Kashmir is a laboratory. Things are first tested there and then applied elsewhere,” she claimed.
She said Kejriwal and Soren have been arrested for no reason.
“What is the fault of Kejriwal ji and Hemant Soren ji? If Kejriwal joins the BJP, the media, which has been calling him corrupt Kejriwal, will say there is no other ‘kattar imaandar’ (staunchly honest person) like him. What was his fault?
That he built good schools where the children of the poor could study and from where engineers, doctors could emerge. He gave free water, free power and built good hospitals,” Mufti asserted.
“This is happening for the first time that even before elections, rigging is happening by arresting opposition leaders. The INDIA bloc does not have Facebook, YouTube, newspapers or TV.
They (the ruling party) have everything — Godi, Modi, media. Please be our TV, our newspaper, our Facebook and YouTube,” she told the crowd.
