My loyalties lie with the country’s soil, they are not mortgaged to BJP: Iltija Mufti

Slamming the BJP for slapping cases against 200 people for using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to access sites, PDF chief Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti emphasised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is either being misled or is wilfully misleading the country.

“It is absurd and ridiculous that a mass FIR has been slapped for using VPN and too using Section 66 that has been scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2015. It’s cathartic when people use the internet and it is a basic human right. When I go back to Kashmir, I’ll also use the VPN and go on tweeting. I would like to see what this government will do,” insisted Mufti.

Former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti has been detained under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) even though they have been under preventive detention in Srinagar for the last six months.

“The Public Security Act has been slapped on my mother. PSA is such a serious charge and the dossier on my mother states that she is a ‘daddy’s girl’. It is full of derogatory, demeaning language. My mother was unapologetically daddy’s girl and I am unapologetically a mummy’s girl. If being a mummy’s or daddy’s girl is a crime, then what can I say,” said Mufti. She was speaking at a press conference at the Indian Women’s Press Corps in the Capital on Tuesday.

Kashmir has suffered around ₹18,000 crore economic loss and political leadership is under detention. “I speak as an anguished Kashmiri and not just as Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter. It was an emotional connect for the Kashmiris with the rest of the country. It was followed by an inhuman crippling and clampdown and it has had a huge economical, emotional and psychological crisis. The govt of India has excelled in spreading propaganda,” pointed out Mufti, who again clarified that currently she was not looking at a political career. “I don’t think I will make a very good politician. Whatever is in my heart, comes out of my lips. That is a trait that my mother constantly warns me about,” quipped Mufti, who said that she was not the right person to speak about PDP’s political course of action.

While resisting to speak of her next legal course of action, Mufti said she felt the integrity of all institutions were being subverted. “The government is being autocratic and despotic.

When you see people, who burnt alive Muslims in Gujarat being given social service as punishment, then you see Chinmayanand, who raped a girl, getting bail, anyone’s faith in the Supreme Court would be shaken. Not just mine. But I still have to place my faith in the only institution which can speak up for me, for Kashmiris. However, I do feel let down by the courts,” said Mufti.

Speaking of the lukewarm response of the rest of the country towards the suffering of Kashmiris, Mufti said that there are many people who do not empathise or sympathise with Kashmiris, but if intolerance has afflicted this country like a virus, then no one is safe.

“People that I knew have become communal. The country has become vicious. I feel we are becoming a Hindu Pakistan. I don’t want people to get upset because of it. As a country, that is the path we are going to. Just because some people have got brute majority, will they tell me if I am Indian? Why do I have to wear my patriotism on my sleeve. This will not stop with me. First, they said that Kashmiris are not good enough to be Indians, then it will Muslims, then they begin the conflict between Hindus and Dalits will termed as not good enough to be Hindus. The need of the hour is to reclaim this country,” asserted Mufti.

“We are looking at a bleak future and this is not only for Kashmiris. This government has stifled dissent, your intellectual space. You can only speak if you are a Bhakt. Everyone must be alarmed. We are looking at dark times,” said Iltija, who had called herself apolitical.

“Just because I don’t align with the BJP does not mean I am anti-national. My loyalties don’t lie with the BJP, it lies with this country, this country’s soil. I am not anti-Indian just because I’m speaking against BJP. If that makes me an anti-national, then probably I am. My loyalties are not mortgaged to the BJP,” said the 32-year-old.

Underscoring the need for religious unity, the People's Democratic Party chief’s daughter said there are people of various faiths and for various people their religious books are of utmost importance. “In today’s India, where so much venom has been spread, there can only be one holy book and that is the Constitution. We need to uphold the values and principles enshrined in this holy book,” added Mufti.