In a stern attack on BJP, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said the party “has mastered the art of misusing religion and nationalism to provide cover to rapists”.
The PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti threw a fresh salvo at the ruling party amid an escalating agitation for arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the embattled chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) over sexual harassment allegations.
Mehbooba Mufti had joined hands with BJP to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016, before the latter pulled off from the coalition in June 2018. Her journey as Jammu and Kashmir’s CM was always bumpy since she ran a government with the BJP, a party with deep ideological differences.
She said in a tweet, “BJP has mastered the art of misusing religion and nationalism to provide cover to rapists. I should know. During my tenure as CM, BJP ministers held a rally holding Indian flags supporting Kathua rapists. Against all odds,I ensured culprits were jailed and those ministers were sacked.”
Mehbooba Mufti’s reaction came over the reports that some seers are holding rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya in support of WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Singh is also the Member of Parliament for the ruling BJP.
The athletes, including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat, had launched the fight in January this year demanding action against Singh. The wrestlers have been holding protests at the heart of the national capital in Jantar Mantar.
They alleged that Singh has sexually harassed several female athletes.
Mufti also referred to Kathua minor rape and murder case, wherein an eight-year-old child from Bakerwal community was abducted by the accused under the pretext of helping her find her horses, held in captivity in a prayer hall in a local temple from 10 January to 17 January, gang-raped while she was sedated, and then bludgeoned to death, the investigators had found.
The chilling case had sparked outrage across Jammu and Kashmir with the then government led by Mehbooba Mufti handing over the case to the Crime Branch following protests from the Bakherwal community.
The infamous case also had taken a communal turn in Kathua after two BJP ministers -- Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga -- in the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet participated in a rally by an outfit called Hindu Ekta Manch in support of the accused.
