With Nitish Kumar at the forefront of the recent hijab row -- where the Bihar CM is purportedly pulling down the hijab of a newly recruited woman doctor during a government function in Patna, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah didn't miss the political opportunity to target PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti for a similar act.
"We have seen such incidents earlier as well here. During my election, people may have forgotten that Mehbooba Mufti got a legitimate voter's burqa removed inside a polling station. This is a continuation of the same mindset. That was unfortunate and equally shameful, and so is this incident," Abdullah said on the sidelines of a public event in Srinagar.
During the election in April 2004, Mufti had lifted a woman's veil. When criticised for it, she had said she was trying to establish the voter's identity, since the veil is often used as a prop to cast bogus votes, reminded the J&K chief minister.
Calling Kumar’s action an exposure of his “true colours” as an ally of what he described as a communal party, Abdullah alleged that forcibly pulling at a woman’s veil was not without precedent in Jammu and Kashmir, and pointed directly at Mufti for it.
Omar Abdullah's comments prompted a sharp response from Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Party spokesperson Mohit Bhan accused Abdullah of misdirecting criticism instead of targeting Kumar’s political allies. “They should have addressed Modi Sahab, as he is an ally partner, and asked him to withdraw support from this government. Instead, he is criticising Mehbooba Mufti and others,” Bhan said.
Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, has herself come down strongly on Nitish Kumar over the incident. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she said she was “shocked” by his behaviour. “Having personally known and admired Nitish ji, I was shocked to see him pull down a young Muslim woman’s naqaab,” she wrote, questioning whether it reflected age or the normalisation of publicly humiliating Muslims.
She also criticised those present at the event. “The fact that people around him watched this horrific incident unfold as some form of entertainment is even more unsettling,” Mufti said, adding that Kumar should consider stepping down.
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