Mehbooba Mufti claims that the PM’s visit to Kashmir was made purely to garner support from the BJP’s core supporters ahead of the local elections

In light of the impending Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kashmir is primarily intended to address and garner support from the BJP’s core base in the rest of the nation, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti stated on Thursday. She also claimed that government workers were “forcibly” transported to the prime minister’s event location.

 

The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir claimed that government workers had been “forcibly mobilized” and brought to Modi’s rally in order to present a “pretty picture that all is well” following the Centre’s 2019 abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and split of the former state into Union territories.

“In subzero temperatures, government workers are being herded into vehicles at Budgam bus stand at five in the morning to be transported to the PM’s rally.”

In an X post, Mufti wrote, “It is disheartening to witness employees being coerced into painting a picture that everything is fine after 2019 and that people here are celebrating their own collective disempowerment and humiliation.”

The president of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) declared that the situation “stands contrary” to previous prime minister visits during the height of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, when the general public flocked to the events with great enthusiasm and left with hope in their hearts.

However, Kashmiris are aware that everything spoken at Bakshi Stadium would serve to further inflame their pain by highlighting the purported advantages of the illegitimate repeal of Article 370. The only purpose of this tour is to rally support for the next Parliamentary elections among the BJP’s core base in the rest of India, she said.

Omar Abdullah, a National Conference (NC) leader and another former chief minister, accused the Jammu and Kashmir Administration on Wednesday of “pulling out all stops” to guarantee a large turnout for Modi’s event.

He claimed that in Kashmir, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not be able to do this on its own.

According to Abdullah, hundreds of government workers have been requested to gather at certain areas before to sunrise so that they may be transported to Modi’s rally site.

“Thousands of workers, both male and female, are requested to gather in the bitter cold between 4:30 and 5:30 in order to be transported by bus to the location. It is required that you participate; it is not optional. The leaders of their departments are threatening to discipline absentee workers,” he said on X.

On Thursday, on his first trip to Kashmir after Article 370’s provisions were repealed, Modi will launch many development projects valued at over Rs 6,400 crore and speak at a public gathering in Srinagar.