The Indian Express | 1 week ago | 18-03-2023 | 12:45 pm
From striking a chord with traders in the historic Raghunath Bazar last month to pouring water on Shivling at a temple in Poonch earlier this week, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and ex-chief minister Mehbooba Mufti seems to be going all out to make an outreach to the majority Hindu community in Jammu, which has been known to be the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s core support base in the region.During her two-day tour of the border district of Poonch, Mehbooba visited Navgraha temple at Mandi-Ajote and offered water to Shivling there, drawing sharp criticism from some Muslim bodies as well as the BJP after its video went viral on social media.The J&K BJP spokesperson and ex-MLA R S Pathania dismissed Mehbooba’s move as “plain drama and gimmickry” by a leader who, he charged, had refused to give land to the Amarnath Shrine Board in 2008.The national vice-president of the Ittehad Ulema-e-Hind, Mufti Asad Qasmi, also criticised Mehbooba, saying her move was against the tenets of Islam.Mehbooba, however, justified it as a move reflecting “secular ethos” of India, saying “it was a personal matter and there is no need to make an issue out of it’’.Refusing to be drawn into a controversy over it, the PDP chief asserted that she knew her religion very well. Invoking India’s “Ganga-Jamuni (syncretic) culture, she said more Hindus offer chadars at Muslim shrines than Muslims in the country.The Navgraha temple was constructed by a former PDP MLC, Yashpal Sharma, who died in January last year. A leader known for his work for weaker sections of society, Yahspal was called “Sher-e-Poonch” by locals.“Yashpal ji had constructed the temple and his son wanted me to see it from inside,” Mehbooba said, adding that this is a beautiful temple for which the people of Poonch donated generously.“As I entered the temple, someone gave me a ‘lota’ (round-shaped vessel) with piousness asking me to pour water (on the Shivling),” she said, asking “how could one refuse to oblige if someone requests you with devotion.” “I did not want to break their heart,” she added.Amused but not shocked to see Godi media devote their prime time to my visit to a temple in Poonch. Would like to remind them that this is still Nehru & Gandhi’s India & not a BJP Rashtra. It is an India where muslim artisans carve the idols worshipped by Hindus.— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) March 17, 2023It is not the first time that Mehbooba visited a temple or a Hindu shrine, as she had visited Kheer Bhawani temple in Kashmir several times when she was the CM of the erstwhile J&K state.However, during her Jammu visit last month too, the PDP chief had sought to connect with the Hindu community, mounting a challenge to the saffron party as she urged the people of the region to wake up from “false dreams shown by the BJP”. At Raghunath Bazar in the heart of Jammu city, she had left her cavalcade and walked through the bustling market, a traditional BJP bastion, to meet and interact with traders. Some of the shopkeepers also stood with her for pictures, as she enquired from them about their business as also the status of market’s beautification project launched during her regime.Referring to Mehbooba’s bonds with the people of the Jammu region, a senior PDP leader said she had done her graduation from Jammu city before getting her law degree from Kashmir University. Her father and PDP founder Mufti Sayeed was then with the Congress and his family had strong ties with the family of K D Sethi, a veteran Communist leader and member of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly. During her childhood, Mehbooba used to stay at Sethi’s house. When he passed away in January 2021, she had said that “Sethi ji treated me like a daughter and will always be an integral part of my childhood. I will miss his wisdom and guidance.”Mufti Sayeed was the only Kashmiri politician to have been elected to the J&K Assembly from the Hindu-dominated R S Pura constituency along the international border in Jammu in 1985, when it had gone for a bypoll. In the 1983 Assembly elections, he had contested as a Congress candidate from Bijbehra and Homoshalibugh in South Kashmir but lost from both the constituencies.Mufti Sayeed always acknowledged the support that he had got from the R S Pura people at a time when he was not getting it even in the Muslim-dominated Valley.After the elections to the 87-member J&K Assembly in November-December 2014 threw up a hung verdict, with the PDP getting 28 seats and the BJP 25, Mufti Sayeed decided to forge a post-poll alliance with the saffron party to form their coalition government, rejecting offers of support from the National Conference (15 seats) and the Congress (12), a senior PDP leader noted. After her father’s demise, Mehbooba took over as the CM in April 2016.When asked about Mehbooba’s tough stance over abrogation of Article 370 and the PDP’s bid to walk out of its coalition with the Congress over the Amarnath land row in 2008 leading to the collapse of the then Ghulam Nabi Azad-led government, which had given her the image of a pro-separatist leader, the PDP leader pointed out that this was part of her politics as a leading player of Kashmir politics, even as she is now steering her party to make inroads in Jammu ahead of the coming Assembly polls.
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