Srinagar
In anticipation of the BJP meeting in Jammu, the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that she commend the manner in which the people of Jammu dismissed communal forces and were unwavering in their support for a little girl Asifa.
“I commend the manner in which the people of Jammu dismissed communal forces & were unwavering in their support for a little girl,” Mehbooba wrote on the Twitter. “It has strengthened my belief that Jammu serves as a model of inclusiveness & together the people of J&K inspire secular unity & righteousness.”
The tweet came a day after the two BJP ministers Lal Singh and C P Gunga put their resignations to the party. The two were part of the Hindu Ekta Manch meeting in support of the rapists that was also attended by seven others party’s lawmakers. The resignations were the outcome of sustained media pressure over the Asifa’s kidnapping, rape and murder case that has shocked the civil society across continents. Earlier the party had taken the position that the two ministers were misled by the people to join the pro-rape protesters.
The two ministers had gone to the Rasana village where they participated in the protest rallies organised in favour of the accused. They had threatened serious consequences and publicly talked about “jungle Raj” of the “Kashmir police”. They had also provoked the locals in seeking an investigation by the CBI at a time when the state police were investigating the case. Lal Singh had actually used threatening words towards Gujjars and made references to 1947.
Chief Minister, however, did not succumb to the right-wing demands and went ahead with the Crime Branch investigations. Instead, she insisted the justice will be done.
As the BJP lawmakers are sitting in a marathon meeting in Jammu – BJP secretary general Ram Madhav is also in the meeting, Mehbooba shot the tweet. Political sources are that it is aimed at preventing the BJP from mistaking the resignations as the “defeat of Jammu”. There has been a thought process in the BJP that even if they intervened to “subside the tensions” and “prevent migrations of Hindus”, they still are being “maligned”. This is despite the fact that Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various other saner elements opposed the idea of rallying behind the rapists. “The tweet is aimed at preventing a bad decision making by the state BJP,” analysts believe.
The tweet came hours ahead of the BJP lawmakers meeting in which the post-resignation scenario is being discussed. The reports appearing in the media suggest that earlier the alliance was supposed to be discussed but after the resignations, the party lawmakers will focus on the judicial process and other related issues in the system. One TV channel reported that the police officials involved in the case would be dismissed from the service and a special court will be constituted for trial of the case within a specific time limit.
