‘Will not contest assembly elections till Article 370 is restored’: Mehbooba Mufti

Bengaluru: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday lauded the people of Karnataka for giving a ray of hope to the entire country by defeating the “fascist, communal and divisive” BJP in the recently concluded assembly elections. He, however, cautioned people against the developments in Delhi, saying it was a wake-up call for all as it could happen anywhere in the country.

Mufti was referring to an ordinance passed by the President on Friday, May 20, giving overriding powers to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi designated by the central government to oversee transfers, postings and disciplinary proceedings of civil servants in Delhi. The ordinance was brought just a week after a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the powers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in the national capital rested with the Delhi government and not the central government. The apex court had made it clear that the central government cannot take over the governance of the elected state governments.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said, “Whatever happened in Delhi is a wake-up call for all. Whatever happened in Jammu and Kashmir is going to happen across the country.”

The PDP chief said, “The BJP does not want any opposition. The Delhi government has been rendered powerless. This is going to happen to everyone.”

Mufti also said that she will not contest the assembly elections until Article 370 is restored in her state. However, his party PDP will contest the elections.

“Karnataka has given a ray of hope to the entire country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and everyone in the BJP was using religion in the Karnataka elections, but still people voted for them,” he told a press conference here.

According to him, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra laid the foundation for the Congress’s victory in the Karnataka assembly elections.

“The last five years were affected by hatred and communal politics. Here in Karnataka also divisive politics was done. Now Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar will heal the wounds,” the PDP chief said.

Mufti said Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to fall prey to “divisive and communal politics”, but the people of Karnataka voted the BJP out of power.

Talking about his state, he said that special status was granted to Jammu and Kashmir, which was the best example of federalism, but “the state was dismembered, dismembered and nullified by abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution”. “.

“Today we have the most militarized state where harassment and searches are happening everyday in the name of security,” the former chief minister said.

He said that during the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, he spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and others about his state.

“I want people to pay attention to what has happened in J&K. All our passports have been confiscated. If this could happen to the family where I was a CM, and my mother was the former CM late Mufti is the wife of Mohd Syed and a former Union minister, it can happen to everyone,” the PDP chief said.

Stating that Jammu and Kashmir has become an open-air prison, Mufti alleged that China was now interfering in its affairs, which earlier only Pakistan used to do.

“This is what the BJP has done by abrogating Article 370,” he said.