In a wide-ranging conversation with senior journalist Harinder Baweja, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti describes Kashmir as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s ‘laboratory’ where policies are tested and later replicated across the country. ’Kashmir is where they test the waters. Then they spread their tentacles everywhere,’ she says.
Her remarks come amid protests over the admission of Muslim students at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi medical college in Jammu's Raesi, the National Medical Commission (NMC)’s decision to withdraw the MBBS course, and the arrests and threats Kashmiris continue to face.
42 Kashmiri Muslim students got admission at Shri Vaishno Devi medical college based on merit but were punished on account of their religion. Isn’t this unfair?
What happened in Shri Mata Vaishna Devi is just the tip of the iceberg. If Muslim students don't get a place in their own state, in their own colleges, where are they going to go? You have seen what is happening to them in other parts of the country, how they are being beaten up, they are harassed and they are, you know, abused and what not. So if you don't have a place even in Mata Vaishna Devi college for the Kashmiri Muslim students, you can well imagine its consequences.
"If they have to divide us on the basis of religion, what are we doing here? Was Jinnah right? Was Sheikh Abdullah wrong? Was Jawaharlal Nehru wrong? Was Gandhi wrong? Was Kashmir wrong to align with a Hindu majority India, which they thought is going to be secular forever and ever and ever."
I can hear the pain in your voice. Can I ask you a direct question? Has it become a crime to be a Kashmiri Muslim?
I think it has become a crime to be a Muslim in this country, and it's worse to be a Kashmiri Muslim. Lynching has been normalised. Demolition of Muslim homes has been normalised. The demolition of mosques... has been normalised. Now their voter names from the voter lists are being deleted. Muslims are being labelled as 'Bangladeshis'. So everything is being normalised to reduce Muslims to second class citizens. Kashmiris have more to pay as compared to the rest, because the rest of the Muslims have never been involved in any kind of activity which is seen to be 'anti-national'. But in Kashmir, there have been forces. There have been opinions, ideas, and a different kind of thought process. So it's a very, very complex situation now.
Do you see the NMC’s decision as something that could further deepen the divide between Jammu and Kashmir?
When the college was derecognised, many people in Jammu, the BJP people, celebrated. So, Kashmiris feel hurt. Jammu people should remember that the Darbar Move was canceled for last so many years and they had to suffer economical losses. So if they feel that getting away from Kashmir and having their own statehood, having their own medical colleges where only Hindus can study, I don't think it's really going to work the way they are thinking. It's going to be have a bad impact on Jammu, which they will see in future. I mean, after all, Jammu and Kashmir, it's one thing. We are together. But the BJP is trying to tear us apart.
You were the Chief Minister, sharing power with the BJP when a minor was raped in Kathua, and BJP ministers protested in favour of the accused. It was a struggle for you to get those ministers sacked. You understand the mind of the BJP better than anyone else.
The BJP is duping Hindus in the name of Ram Raj, but what exactly they are giving us is Kaurav Raj, where women were disrobed, where women were disrespected... The worst thing that can happen to a woman is being raped and then see your rapist moving around. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, I don't know whether this is his 14th or 15th parole, and look at Umar Khalid. So it's a very, very sad state of affairs.
"Because the India I know, the India I grew up in, the India my father knew, the idea of India that we fought for in Kashmir, we lost so many of our workers just to save the idea of India. It is unfortunately dying. And somewhere Godse’s India is coming up like a phoenix."
Have you reached out to anyone in Delhi or anyone in the corridors of power to point to the dangers of what is playing out on the ground?
Earlier, there were parties like the Congress who had fought for the independence of the Kashmir. So they loved the country. They had their own, you know, vices and drawbacks, but they had some love for the country. And today, I feel the BJP is only thinking about winning elections and being in power. And that's why they do whatever suits them, even if Kashmiris become suicide bombers, and they create havoc all over the country, it suits them. Because then they are able to demonise more Muslims, especially Kashmiris.
If I were to ask you to give me a reading of Delhi's mind, how would you put it?
Well, first of all, let me tell you, I don't know whether I'm supposed to tell you. I think, somehow, [National Security Advisor] Mr [Ajit] Doval has been asked to keep out of J&K by the Home Minister. I may be crossing my limit, but I think so because we haven't seen much of him after Amit Shah became the Home Minister. And I think somehow, you know, the whole thing is run from the Home Ministry.
Do you not feel the need to pick up the phone and talk to the Home Minister, Mr Amit Shah?
We sent recommendations for undertrials, suggested many things, but nothing really happened. I told them that my father aligned with the BJP thinking that it was a nationalist party, it will sacrifice many things for the national interest, but you have sacrificed Kashmir for your voter politics. I told them that. I mean, I was very frank about it. And nothing happened after that. And so today also, people here in Kashmir, they are scared. But someday, you know, the pressure cooker is going to blow up in our face as we have seen what happened in Pahalgam, as we have seen what happened at Red Fort.
I mean, imagine a doctor from a poor family becoming a doctor and then blowing up himself and many innocent people with him. So what is this? This is suffocation. This is frustration. They can stay in power as long as they want, the media is on their side, the Election Commission is on their side, the judiciary is on their side. They have infiltrated all the institutions.
My father's purpose was to keep their hands tied by joining with them, not to let their hands go free. And that's what he was succeeded till the government was there. Even today, people remember [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee ji. Nobody thinks that Vajpayee ji would have given Kashmir to Pakistan on the platter, no? But he was trying to give dignity to Kashmir and also keep Pakistan involved in the peace process, which is totally dead at this point of time.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah promised a Naya Kashmir. What is this Naya Kashmir?
Well, they had also said that they are going to take away the stones from the youth and put laptops in their hands. We have seen a doctor tying an ID around his body and blowing himself up. We see every day there are dozens of raids being conducted in Kashmir, but are not allowed to say anything.
I mean, if a youth wants to put some thought on the social media, within an hour, he/she is arrested. We have people who are languishing in jails under trials. Put a person in jail, but you can't jail an idea. And whatever it is, separatism is an idea, you have to address it. We are living in India.
But we should be happy about it, not fighting it all the time, not fighting it all the time and being angry about it. That's where they need to address the elephant in the room, which they are not doing. But they will have to do it at a point of time. We are living in India. But we should be happy about it, not fighting it all the time, and being angry about it. That's where they need to address the elephant in the room, which they are not doing. But they will have to at some point of time.
Has the meaning and essence of the idea of India changed for you?
Oh, my God. I just can't tell you. I mean, can you imagine? I'm really scared now to go to Delhi. I sometimes feel they can recognise me. What's going to happen to me? Mehbooba Mufti, whose daughters thought Delhi was their first home and Kashmir was their second home. Mehbooba Mufti, who would say, you know, Indira is India. It's no more Indira Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru or Gandhiji or Ambedkar. It's Godse who is dominating the scene, and it really breaks my heart.
"And at times, I miss my dad a lot. But then sometimes my sisters tell me, 'Mehbooba, do you think it's good that he's not here?' Because he was Indian by conviction, by heart, it would have broken his heart what's happening in the rest of the country at this point of time. It's weighing on my heart all the time."
So where is Jammu and Kashmir headed?
You see where it is headed. They are more bothered about how to control it. And for that, they have the agencies, they have surveillance, they have the jails. They have everything except empathy for the people of J&K.
Even Jammu people, if they are being foolish enough that, the BJP or the government of India loves Jammu more. No, no, no. Nothing of the sort. When it comes to their power politics, they can sacrifice anybody. It's not only about Jammu and Kashmir now. The whole country is in a mess.
I have an apprehension that the time is going to come very soon when in medical colleges they are going to teach them that it is better to have cow urine and cow dung to cure diseases rather than any scientific way. I mean, a country like India, where ISRO was built by Jawaharlal Nehru and people were going beyond moon. Where are we going? We are going backwards. This is what the BJP is about.
Watch the full interview for more.