Country will run on Constitution, not BJP’s manifesto: Mehbooba in first presser after release

Stating that the BJP has desecrated the Constitution, Mufti vowed not only to restore Article 370 but also to bring about a final solution to the Kashmir issue.

In her first press conference after being released from 14 months of detention, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday launched a scathing attack on the BJP, saying that the “country will run on the Constitution and not on the BJP’s manifesto”.

“The people of J&K are expendable to them (Centre), what they want is territory. This country will run on the constitution, not on the BJP’s manifesto,” Mufti said while addressing media from her Gupkar residence.

Stating that the BJP has desecrated the Constitution, Mufti vowed not only to restore Article 370 but also to bring about a final solution to the Kashmir issue.

Mufti addressed the media with the flag of erstwhile J&K state in front of her. “My flag is this (pointing to the J&K flag on the table). When this flag comes back, we’ll raise that flag (Tricolour) too. Until we get our own flag back, we won’t raise any other flag…This flag forged our relationship with that flag.

“Our relationship with the flag of this country is not independent of this flag (Jammu and Kashmir’s flag). When this flag comes in our hand, we will raise that flag too,” Mufti was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Mufti was released from 14 months detention on October 13, after the J&K government revoked her detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The decision came two days before her daughter Iltija Mufti’s petition challenging her detention was scheduled to be heard in the Supreme Court.

Mufti, along with the entire separatist and mainstream leadership, was detained by the J&K Police on August 5 last year; the day the Centre abrogated Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and downgraded the state into two Union Territories.

In an audio message posted on Twitter after being released, she had said the people of Jammu and Kashmir cannot forget the “robbery and humiliation” of August 5 and demanded release of all prisoners lodged in different jails of the Union territory and outside.

“Now, all of us have to reiterate, we will have to take back what New Delhi snatched from us illegally, undemocratically and unconstitutionally. In addition to this we will have to continue our struggle for the resolution of Kashmir issue for which thousands of people sacrifices their lives. I agree that this path would not be easy but I have belief that our courage and our determination will help us to cross this road,” she had said in the audio message.

In her message, Mufti also said, “All this time, the black decision of the black day of August 5, 2019 wounded my soul. And I understand the situation would have been similar for all people of Jammu and Kashmir.”

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